SOMETHING MORE OR LESS ABOUT DAFFODILS. 



95 



height as regards sea-level, drainage, with any special atmospheric 

 or climatic characteristics, should he given, as they have a great 

 deal to do with the growth of plants, size of flowers, &c. ; and I 

 do abominate the superfluous multiplication of so-called varieties 

 and the consequent squeezing of the purse of a non-discriminating 

 public. I think the Yorkshire story of the farmer who sold his 

 old horse to a couper at a fair, then got very drunk on his good 

 bargain, and bought him back at the end of the day with painted 

 legs and filed teeth as a young horse, might have a kindred story 

 among Daffodil-bulb buyers. Climate and soil alter the character 

 of Narcissi to a great extent, but a couple of years will suffice for 

 them to return to what they originally were. How far a sport 

 may become fixed as regards its offsets, I am not in a position to 

 say. After some ten years' experience I can say that I have 

 never known a sport from a bulb, and I am inclined to think 

 that so-called sports have been seedlings which have been mixed 

 unconsciously with the bulbs, or have been in the ground where 

 the offsets were planted. 



And this brings me to another point — the hybridisation of 

 Narcissi and the growing of them from seed. If anyone for 

 amusement takes up this work, he should do it well, or he will 

 not be helping science, and will get very little recompense for his 

 labour. The necessary implements are as follows : a note-book, 

 a pair of fine scissors, a camel's-hair brush with a glass tube to 

 hold the same, and some labels. The method of working is to go 

 out into the garden at seven or eight o'clock in the morning and 

 select flowers which are just opening ; cut off the ends of the 

 perianth and all the anthers. When you have done as many as 

 you want for that day, go in to breakfast ; come out again at ten 

 or half-past, collect the pollen for your cross in your camel's-hair 

 brush, put it in the glass tube to prevent the wind blowing it off, 

 fertilise your chosen flower, put a label to it numbered, and in 

 your book record the number and the cross. Before using the 

 pollen from another variety clean your brush by knocking and 

 blowing the pollen off, and wipe the tube out with a bit of cotton 

 wool. The most successful days for hybridisation are dry, sunny 

 ones with no wind. Natural hybridisation must be among 

 varieties which open at the same time, but artificial may be done 

 between plants raised under protection and those out of doors ; 

 or if carefully done the pollen may be placed in dry tubes, corked 



