188 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



with great eagerness to the Narcissus Committee, who in turn gave 

 attention to clearing up the natural history of the species, as well as to 

 recognising the merits of new garden varieties. 



The Committee also undertook to identify any flowers sent for that 

 purpose, and the number received, not only from all parts of the United 

 Kingdom, but also from Holland, France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, was 

 at times considerable ; there would be piles of boxes, some of them con- 

 taining as many as thirty or forty supposed different forms. As our 

 authority and our decisions seem to have been accepted by the senders of 

 these flowers in nearly every instance, the result was that a great deal of 

 confusion was removed, and the same name stood for the same thing in all 

 these different countries. The number of expressions of gratitude which 

 reached me as Honorary Secretary from those whose flowers had been 

 named showed clearly that this privilege was much appreciated. 



As regards the new garden or seedling forms, a plan was adopted of 

 selecting carefully only the best, which were " registered " as standard 

 varieties under a name appropriated so that it should not be used else- 

 where, and all possible information concerning origin or history was asked 

 for and noted. Unless the information had already been communicated, a 

 special form was sent to be filled up by the exhibitor, and in some cases 

 the history had to be traced back to the raiser or introducer, and it was the 

 intention to have a coloured drawing made of each "registered" variety 

 hid not the number of seedling forms increased so rapidly. 



The work, therefore, fell under three heads : — 



1. Information as to natural history ; 



2. Clearing up the confusion of nomenclature ; 



3. Selecting and registering standard varieties. 



Daring the next few years th9 market industry in Daffodils as cut 

 flowers was beginning to assume large proportions, hence a special 

 importance of the flower which we had in our charge. I do not think it 

 is too much to say that, had it not been for the stimulus given by this 

 Committee, some of the raisers of new varieties who have been the 

 most successful, would not have attempted or persevered in their labours 

 as they have done. The unexpected manner also in which the very 

 diversely formed types of Narcissus — Ajax, Corbularia, Cyclamineus, 

 Triandrus, Jonquilla, Poeticus — have been found capable of being crossed 

 or hybridised, has opened up a wider field of refined beauty than one 

 could have dared to hope for. 



To return to the history of the Committee. In 1887 a trial was 

 started at Kew, the soil at Chiswick not being considered suitable, of all 

 the white Ajax that could be obtained, in order to test the question how 

 far distinctions which under certain conditions were observable would 

 remain constant when those conditions of climate or soil were assimilated, 

 altered, or removed. It has always been the ambition of the Committee 

 to have the varieties submitted for judgment grown and tested side be- 

 side in a similar way, and examples kept for future reference and com- 

 parison, but the inflated money value of bulbs of the finer varieties — 

 which were the chief ones required for the purpose — has rendered this 

 impossible in practice. 



In the year 1889 the Council granted us power to recommend First- 



