HYBRID NARCISSI. 



41 



N. Macleayi ; the other has a more expanded, funnel-like crown, 

 which has caused the BackJwusei form of N. incomparabilis. 

 These effects I have observed in my own seedlings, but I must 

 also say that a variety of N.bicolor such as "Empress" or 

 " Horsfieldi " crossed with N. poeticus will give both Nelsoni 

 and Backhousei. 



The denomination N. Barri might without disadvantage be 

 dropped, and the flowers now under it merged in N. incom- 

 parabilis. Many of them differ from incomparabilis but little 

 in shortness of corona, and as to their origin I find they come 

 from the same cross with it, and commonly from the same seed- 

 pod. The group N. Burbidgei, however, is distinct both in its 

 more decided reduction of corona and in its parentage. I have 

 raised it in quantity and variety from the progeny of N. pseudo- 

 Narcissus and N. poeticus crossed again with the latter, and 

 believe that all the N. Burbidgei enumerated in Messrs. Barr's 

 catalogue had that origin. My seedlings all show a fixed limit 

 to the modification of internal structure caused by the first cross. 

 If to the eye, without dissection, any N. incomparabilis-like 

 flower has evidently biseriate stamens, i.e. if three of the 

 anthers are visibly set well below the others, as in N. poeticus, 

 it is the result of a secondary cross. I have found this simple 

 test to be quite unfailing. In the cross N. pseudo -Narcissus 

 x N. poeticus, the latter, especially when made the seed-parent y 

 occasionally leaves the former unchanged in colour and intact in 

 form except for a very slight shortening or clipping, so to speak, 

 of the corona. This, I am persuaded, is the derivation of the 

 group N. Humei. The outcome of the white trumpet Daffodils 

 and N. poeticus is the class N. Leedsi. These parents, we 

 know, were employed by Herbert, Leeds, and Backhouse. They 

 also made use of N. montanus, itself a product of the same cross, 

 in conjunction with white trumpets and with N. poeticus r 

 thus obtaining the more drooping forms of N. Leedsi which were 

 once classed as elegans and galanthiflorus. The division N. 

 tridymus has its rise from N. pseudo-Narcissus x N. tazetta. Of 

 this I have several examples among my seedlings, and Messrs. 

 Veitch have raised and exhibited it in considerable variety. 



I have remarked that the cross N. pseudo-Narcissus x N. 

 poeticus embraces a large proportion of these hybrids. To it 

 are due the sections N. incomparabilis. Barri, Leedsi, Humei 



