94 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



assures us, first, that the work of raising seedlings will continue ; 

 and, secondly, that it will now principally take the course of 

 efforts to improve the Daffodil from the florist's and the market- 

 gardener's point of view. From the point of view of the scientific 

 botanist there does not, perhaps, remain a great deal to accom- 

 plish in seedling raising, in comparison with what has been 

 done. For we may, roughly speaking, say that we know the 

 parentage of most of the hybrid Narcissi. That will be acknow- 

 ledged by those who consult Mr. Burbidge's papers which I have 

 mentioned. Herbert, Leeds, Backhouse, Leichtlin, and others 

 have left notes — not so ample or accurate as we could wish, but 

 ample enough to justify us in saying we know that X. incompar- 

 abilis is between N. Pseudo-N. and N. poeticus ; X. odorus between 

 N. Pseudo-X. and X. Jonquilla ; X.tridymus between X. Pseudo-N. 

 and N. Tazetta, and so forth. It will, no doubt, be satisfactory 

 when all this is verified step by step, by workers who will bring 

 us every one of these old hybrids as actually raised by themselves, 

 and will show us parents and offspring. There are also new 

 hybrids to be produced between X. triandrus and X. cyclamineus, 

 and the various Xarcissi with which they seem willing to cross. 

 The former has already been used, but to no great extent as yet. 

 Many more minds and hands, however, will be engaged in 

 improving our Xarcissi as florists' and market-gardeners' flowers, 

 for a florist's and a market-gardener's flower the Xarcissus now 

 is, and a very important one, resthetically and commercially. It 

 is on this point in particular that I have a few suggestions to 

 make — as to the lines along which such improvement should be 

 pushed. 



"When visiting the grounds of my good friend Mr. Walker and 

 others, it has often been my thought — how few first-class market 

 varieties there are, and how many gaps there are crying to be 

 filled up. Thus, at the beginning of the Xarcissus season I see 

 Tenby all alone, so far as trumpet Daffodils are concerned, 

 for some while ; and I am sure that Mr. Walker would like half 

 an acre of a flower as early, as bright, and as stiff as Tenby, 

 but twice as big and productive of more bloom to the bulb, for 

 Tenby is not very free in this respect. Well, I think that this is 

 an attainable thing, either by sowing considerable breadths of 

 seed of Tenby (it bears seed abundantly) and selecting from the 

 seedlings, or by crossing it with such Daffodils as Golden Spur 



