b4 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



or, if the change is too extreme, it must die out. " Change or 

 die " is nature's plan of bringing her species and genera into line; 

 and the plants we now see around us represent those which have 

 so changed ; but it is only in the fossil or rock-printed condition 

 that we can become acquainted with the orders and genera 

 which have died out in the life-and-death struggle. 



The Daffodils that are found wild in Spain or Southern 

 France are often extremely variable. N. Pseudo-Narcissus in 

 Spain is white, cream, sulphur, or bicolor and rich yellow. N. 

 triandrus is extremely variable. In France again, N. pallidus- 

 praecox and N. muticus are protean in their variety, and the 

 intermediates or cross-bred variations, known as N. variiformis, 

 contain some very fine phases, the leaves broad and bicolor-like, 

 and the flowers of great substance and fine form. As contrasted 

 with these wild phases, some of the old forms of Narcissi, long 

 cultivated in our gardens, are remarkably true, i.e. not variable 

 in character, and such have presumably been the vegetative off- 

 spring (i.e. by division) of one bulb, introduced long ago from 

 their native habitats, or they may in some cases have been garden 

 seedlings. Of such are N. Jonquilla, N. obvallaris, N. bicolor, 

 N. princeps, N. maximus, N. minor, and others I need not name. 

 The wild "English" Daffodil (N. Pseudo-Narcissus) as a rule 

 varies but little, but now and then it does vary considerably, 

 white varieties occurring sparingly in Oxfordshire and Dorset- 

 shire, and in Cornwall there are forms of a deeper yellow. 

 "Where variation thus occurs it has been surmised that the native 

 plant has been crossed with pollen from garden forms or garden 

 escapes. I do not accept this view, because we find them white 

 on the Pyrenees, without any suggestion of crossing. In Scot- 

 land the plant varies slightly, having a more reflexed rim to the 

 trumpet, and so being nearly identical with the Guernsey and 

 Normandy wild kinds. The sectional variations of N. Pseudo-Nar- 

 cissus are become very puzzling. Formerly we only had N. Pseudo- 

 Narcissus N. P.-N. major, N. P.-N. minor, and the bicolor and 

 white-flowered sections. Now we have N. Telamonius and 

 N. spurius, the French N. pallidus-pra?cox, the Spanish N. as- 

 turicus, N. variiformis, N. muticus, and other groups edged in, 

 and he would be a bold and hopeful man who would venture to 

 separate N. major, N. propinquus, N. Telamonius, N. spurius, 

 N. princeps, &c, variations and phases, from each other. Some 



