HYBRID NARCISSI. 



39 



tazctta and poeticus,* as is proved by flowers here on the table 

 and raised in my garden from the cross. You will observe that 

 w T hile one of my seedling varieties closely resembles the ordinary 

 biflorus of our gardens, others are almost identical with " Muzart 

 orientalis," " Bazelman major," and "Bazelman minor," three 

 Narcissi commonly classed with the tazctta or polyanthus Nar- 

 cissus, but long since suspected of the hybrid source to which 

 they must now be assigned. From the white trumpet-Daffodils, 

 N. cemuus, albicans, Sec, and N. poeticus, I have flowered a 

 large number of seedlings which practically reproduce all the 

 forms of N. Lecdsi now in cultivation, and among them flowers 

 not separable from N. montanus. I feel sure that this was 

 named and brought to our gardens by some traveller who chanced 

 upon it in a mountainous — perhaps Pyrenean — locality where 

 N. moschatus grew in juxtaposition with N. poeticus. From 

 N. p. ornatus xN.jonquilla I have a plant which, on account of 

 the precocity of this particular poeticus, blooms earlier than 

 N. gracilis, but in all other respects so closely resembles it, even 

 in its very distinct clove-like scent, as to fully satisfy me of its 

 origin. With regard to the singular little Narcissus N. Macleayi, 

 I must own that none of my seedlings are small enough to claim 

 complete identity with it. But from a variety of N. bicolor 

 with cylindrical corona, commonly imported from Holland, and 

 N. poeticus verbanensis, a dwarf mountain form from North 

 Italy, I have what may be called N. Nclsoni in miniature, 

 scarcely " one size larger " than N. Macleayi, and not otherwise 

 differing from it. It is no uncommon occurrence for a seedling 

 to be much smaller than either of its parents, and N. Macleayi 

 may be an example of such diminution. Another wild hybrid, 

 not known to Herbert, but of quite recent introduction, a Nar- 

 cissus first found in the vicinity of Oporto by Mr. A. W. Tait, and 

 named by him N. Johnstoni, was thought to have originated be- 

 tween N. triandrus and N. pseudo-Narcissus, its characters being- 

 intermediate, and both these species being indigenous in Portugal. 

 Subsequently other varieties of N. Johnstoni were discovered 

 in the Spanish Peninsula by Mr. Peter Barr, and are now in 



* Two days after this paper was read I received a communication from 

 Mr. Peter Barr, at that time on a botanical tour, stating that in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Montpellier, and again near Quillan, he had found N. biflorus 

 in abundance growing between wild N. poeticus and tazctta. With his letter 

 came a large series of the flowers. — G. H. E. 



