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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Nelsoni, Bachhousei. This extension is primarily owing to the 

 many degrees of form and colour which are presented by the 

 yellow, the bicolor, and the white Daffodils included in N. pseudo- 

 Narcissus. But the consequences of this cross differ to a 

 certain extent according as the Daffodil and the poeticus are 

 respectively used as male or as female parent. The great 

 number of seedlings which I have now had the opportunity of 

 examining enables me to state with confidence that, on the whole, 

 the male is prepotent in determining both the form and the 

 colour of the hybrid. In colour this is most marked. The 

 cross N. poeticus (pollen) xN. pseudo-Narcissus (seed) produces, 

 in at least four cases out of five, forms of N. incomparabilis 

 with white perianths, even where the N. pseudo-Narcissus is of 

 a strong self-yellow. Out of the multitude of flowers of 

 N. incomparabilis which have come to us from the Leeds and 

 Backhouse collections, there are but very few with perianths of 

 a decided yellow, as compared with those having white or pale 

 perianths. The reason I believe to be this. It is more difficult 

 to obtain hybrids from N. poeticus than by its pollen, since it is 

 much more quickly self-fertilised on opening than the trumpet 

 Daffodil. White-perianthed flowers, too, are the more attractive, 

 and it is therefore probable that Leeds and Backhouse raised 

 most of their N. incomparabilis from N. pseudo-Narcissus by 

 pollen of N. poeticus, which order of cross-fertilisation has also 

 the greater tendency to give the prized red edge or suffusion 

 to the corona. In its influence upon form also the prepotence 

 of the pollen-parent is sufficiently noticeable. Thus it is my 

 experience that N. poeticus (pollen) x N. pseudo-Narcissus (seed) 

 gives N. Barri rather than N. incomparabilis, while the reversed 

 cross gives a greater proportion of the latter longer-crowned 

 form. Exceptions are abundant, but the rule is discernible 

 where seedlings are grown in quantity. Some of the phenomena 

 of hybridism in the Narcissi both throw light on their natural 

 history and serve to break down their artificial divisions. Thus 

 from the pure white Daffodils, not excepting even the Pyrenean 

 N. moschatus, the whitest of all, crossed with N. poeticus, I 

 have not only white N. incomparabilis, i.e. N. Leedsi, but also 

 N. incomparabilis yellow both in corona and in perianth. 

 Herbert remarked that the produce of N. moschatus was not 

 always white. This must be an instance of atavism, and indi- 



