340 
JOUENAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
dozen of them were meritorious blooms and worth naming, but Mr. 
Wilson was content to have the best one in the estimation of the certify- 
ing Committee named at that time, and this was one with the charac- 
teristic of Obvallaris, larger in size and lighter in colour, the parentage 
of which is not yet definitely fixed, for by an inadvertence the blooms 
were mixed while they were being cut. This will be overcome next year, 
when the flower appears ; the bulb, which is already marked and corre- 
sponds to a table kept by Mr. Wilson, will be carefully fixed upon. I 
think it may be found to be Obvallaris x Emperor. The flower was 
named 'Captain Harvey,' in memory of an ex-High School boy, who 
went to South Africa as a soldier of the Queen and was shot through the 
head by a Boer bullet. Others of Mr. Wilson's raising are Emperor x 
Maximus, Princeps x Albicans, Horsfieldii x Poeticus angustifolius, 
Pallidus praecox asturicus x Jonquil. This latter one gave a sweet 
thing— rush-leaf foliage, and a twin flower, shaped somewhat like the 
Nelsoni type, primrose-yellow in colour. Horsfieldii x Poeticus gave 
flowers similar to the Leedsii type, and convinced Mr. Wilson that the 
idea he had that there was Montanus "blood" in the Leedsii varieties 
was an erroneous one. Mr. Davies secured the first award for a New 
Zealand raised Narcissus in the Christchurch Show of 1899 with one that 
he has great expectations of, the parentage of which is obscure. It has 
been named Dreyfus. Mr. Davies, like most of the others who have tried 
raising from seed, did not keep a record of the crosses, or did not know 
them, in the earlier batches of seedlings raised, and, as in the case of 
Professor Thomas, is hoping for good results from careful selection and 
hybridisation in the years to come. 
Some years ago Mr. Mason saved seeds of N. triandrus pulchellus, 
which came true to the parent and furnished him with good strong bulbs, 
bilt increase somewhat slowly. The single Jonquil and N. corbularia 
conspicua seed very freely, and come true, and flower the third year from 
sowing the seed. Most of the varieties bear seed if allowed to. Countess 
of Annesley and Princeps most prolificly, and I think the bulk of seed- 
lings that have been raised in New Zealand by those who have not 
approached the matter in a scientific or semi-scientific manner are from 
either one or other of these. I think that in a few years' time, when the 
results of the careful labour of these gentlemen in crossing the varieties 
have flowered, several New Zealand raised Narcissi will not only be 
worth naming, but will be worth sending across the^ocean to the Mother- 
land ; we have to wait for that time. 
