HYBRID NARCISSI. 



43 



cates that N. moschatus is a white geographical development, 

 not yet absolutely fixed, of an older yellow Narcissus. 



A few other notes of observation may be of interest and 

 some practical value to the hybridist. Sterility of hybrids does 

 not obtain, in any general way, in the Narcissi. In my garden, 

 on the borders of Hampshire and Wiltshire, there are few of the 

 hybrids which do not yield good seed. Many varieties of 

 N. incomparabilis, Leedsi, and Burbidgei bear a regular crop. 

 Two consecutive hot springs have caused even N. Johnstoni, 

 hitherto reputed sterile, to form large pods, promising ripe seed. 

 Herbert, in his colder Yorkshire climate, found some kinds 

 infertile in both ovules and pollen, which are with me abun- 

 dantly fertile in both. So great is the effect of changed 

 environment upon the reproductive power of plants that I am 

 not prepared to disbelieve the statement, rejected by Herbert, 

 that even the notoriously sterile N. odor us has been recorded 

 to ripen seed in Southern Italy. Many Narcissi bear seed 

 under careful artificial fertilisation which rarely seed otherwise. 

 In this way I have season after season obtained seed from 

 N. "Empress" in some quantity, but a bed of some two 

 or three hundred flowers, left purposely untouched on one 

 occasion, did not afford a single seed. The variety of N. poeticus 

 known as N. p. verus of Linnaeus is rarely fruitful if not fertilised 

 by hand, but every flower bears a pod if touched with pollen of 

 N.p. ornatus or N.p. poetarum. 



The microscope has been of assistance to me in this work. 

 Noticing that the fine incomparabilis " Sir Watkin " was 

 seldom self- fertilised, and that its pollen rarely fertilised other 

 Narcissi, I magnified its pollen and found it very irregular and 

 imperfect. Having thus learned that it must be applied to a 

 flower often and plentifully to ensure the contact of some 

 perfect grains, I have since succeeded in raising many seedlings 

 by this pollen, and have found that some other pollens are 

 similar and must be employed in the same fashion. My success 

 in harvesting seed from Narcissi which appear to yield it seldom 

 or never elsewhere is partly owing to my soil and climate, but 

 may also be attributable to my practice of conveying pollen to 

 the selected seed-parents not once only, but two or three times a 

 day for several days, and thus making sure of its application at 

 the moment when the stigma is in a receptive condition. That 



