96 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



as Emperor, but with the rich golden colour of Maximus, which 

 is not always happy in England. Perhaps Messrs. de Graaf and 

 the late Mr. Kendal have already crossed Emperor with Maximus 

 to add the rich deep colour of the latter to the splendid habit of 

 the former, but other gardeners may well attempt this or similar 

 devices. Maximus seeds with me occasionally ; Emperor always 

 with great freedom, although with Mr. Backhouse it seems to 

 have seeded badly. One of the loveliest possibilities in Narcissus 

 hybrids is the flower with pure white perianth and orange-scarlet 

 crown. Nelson! Aurantius is, perhaps, the only good flower 

 already obtained, or at least in commerce, in this department, 

 for " Mary Anderson'' declines to stay on the stage, and the 

 collected Bernardi (some of which are very brilliant i want 

 size. I can scarcely myself believe that Mr. Leichtlhrs Scarlet 

 Daffodil is a possibility, so far as a red perianth is concerned, 

 but there is no reason at all why a flower should not be bom as 

 big as Sir Wat kin, but with a white perianth, and an almost 

 scarlet cup. I have myself many seedlings in a juvenile state 

 supposed to be between various fine trumpets, and the red-cupped 

 p. poetaram, and hope they may not disappoint my expectations. 

 In this cross the Ajax must be stout, to compensate for the fliinsy 

 perianth of p. poetarum. 



Speaking of the Poeticus group reminds me that there is too 

 great a gap of time between the last flower of ornatus and the 

 first of recurvus. P. poetarum, to some extent, comes between 

 the two ; but it is not serviceable as a market flower on account 

 of its thin perianth, which droops like limp muslin on a scorch- 

 ing day. Seedlings between ornatus and recurvus, a perfectly 

 possible cross, ought to be valuable to bridge over this gulf. 

 And how invaluable a double ornatus would be, or a double 

 poeticus. which would bloom distinctly before the ordinary late 

 double poeticus. Large growers of ornatus should be on the 

 watch for a semi-double ornatus, and carefully save its seed. 

 Or perhaps a cross could be effected between ornatus and the 

 late double, which occasionally seeds, if the one could be retarded 

 and the other forced. 



Enough attention has not been paid to the raising of double 

 seedlings. Double Daffodils seed more often than is supposed. 

 A very double Daffodil often has the stigma perfect and visible 

 among the tightly packed petals if the flower is well examined. 



