THE NARCISSUS. 



77 



cut from yellow through white (i.e., the absence of yellow pig- 

 ment) to pink, as here shown. The points in the above colour- 

 scale worth notice, and at present unaccountable, are these : 

 Why does the blue colouring become absorbed from the nor- 

 mal leaf- green, thus leaving us yellow flowers ? Again, how and 

 why is it so many flowers turn white and avoid becoming orange- 

 coloured ? And thirdly, why should red colouring eventually 

 become absorbed from purple flowers, thus leaving us blue 

 ones ? 



After form and colour, fragrance is the next important 

 development, and here the yellow Daffodils are not very remark- 

 able, although some of the white ones are really on the way 

 towards the acquiring of a pleasant bees-waxy kind of odour. 

 Some of my friends state that there are white Daffodils " scented 

 like violets," but all I can say is I prefer the violets. When 

 we get to the true Narcissi we find the richest and most exquisite 

 of fragrance, as developed in the flowers of N. poeticus, N. Jon- 

 quilla, and N. Tazetta, the last named being indeed too strong 

 for many delicate people. The idea is that white flowers that 

 are scented are mainly cross-fertilised by night-flying moths ; 

 and in this connection we may remember the curious little 

 species of Narcissus, such as N. elegans, N. serotinus, and N. 

 viridiflorus, all of which have a fragrance quite disproportionate 

 to their size ; and we know that they are now and then cross- 

 fertilised, because Mr. Maw found hybrids between N. serotinus 

 and N. viridiflorus at Tangiers in 1884. The green-flowered 

 Jonquil is a curiosity. Known to Parkinson in 1629, it was re- 

 introduced to English gardens in 1883, by Mr. Maw, from Spain 

 and Morocco, It is no doubt a degenerate Jonquil, and quite as 

 highly specialised in form as is the yellow type, but its fragrance 

 probably attracts its daylight insect visitors quite as well as 

 brilliant colour would do ; hence it seems reasonable to suppose 

 that the perianth and corona have reverted to green, the 

 chlorophyll being no doubt an added source of strength to the 

 seed-vessels and ovules. 



Distribution. 



I forgot to say a word or two as to the geographical distribu- 

 tion of the Narcissi. 



They are mainly confined to Western Europe, the head 



k 2 



