192 
FLORA AND SYLVA 
SOME NEW DAFFODILS.* 
The flowers shown in our plate are the 
most remarkable among those raised by 
Mrs. Backhouse, of Sutton St. Nicholas, 
near Hereford. In a few notes upon her 
gains the raiser confines herself to the 
question of parentage as being of primary 
interest to lovers of the Daffodil, to 
whom the details of crossing and cul- 
ture are already familiar. Mrs. Back- 
house informs us that the large pale 
Backhousei ^^Lord Kitche?ier^^ the giant 
Leedsii^'' The Faw7i^' and the " Cza?^- 
ina^' were from seed of the large Ajax 
varieties crossed with forms of N. Leedsii. 
^^Dewdrop " is from a form of Leeds it 
crossed With. poeticus. In one small batch 
of these seedlings the flower-cups vary 
in length from almost the disk-like 
crown of N.poeticuslo the long trumpet- 
form of Ajax. Their high standard of 
excellence is no less remarkable than 
their variety in shape, some ninety per 
cent, of the whole being good and fairly 
good, instead of two or three plants in 
a hundred, the usual percentage of 
those worth keeping. They are all 
prolific seed-bearers. 
DEUTZIA. 
Were it only for their gains in this one 
group of hardy shrubs,plant lovers would 
owe much to the Messrs. Lemoine of 
Nancy, who for years past have gathered 
all the available species and carefully 
crossed them with one another, produc- 
ing a series of hybrids beautiful in colour 
and varied in form and habit of growth. 
Even with our wealth of early flowering 
shrubs there is ample room for the soft 
shades of carmine,rose,and purple which 
these new Deutzias offer us, though to 
see them at their best the plants must 
flower naturally in the open air, forced 
plants losing much of their colour. Such 
distinct kinds as kalmicejlora^ discolor 
gra7tdiJIora and purpurascens^ and the 
rosy forms o{ gracilis^ are worth a place 
in every collection of hardy shrubs, 
though they are at present very little 
known even in nurseries, the well- 
flowered plants shown at the meetings 
of the Royal Horticultural Society dur- 
ing the spring having passed almost un- 
noticed through no fault of their own. 
To see them in the open is worth a visit 
to Kew, and though it cannot be said 
that they are well cared for, they were 
very beautiful last year. This year the 
frosts have been unkind to the earlier 
varieties, though the forms of discolor 
are both very good and very little in- 
jured. Though Sieboldiana seems to 
come very near scabra it appears to be 
distinctly earlier at Kew, as well as 
stouter and more vigorous in growth. 
The arching sprays of gracilis carmi- 
72ea are charming in bud or when fully 
open, and though without colour gra- 
cilis Boiile de neige is an excellent plant 
for effect when grouped. Deiitzia Le- 
jnoinei — one of M. Lemoine's early 
gains — is not always good in the open 
from failure to expand if the weather is 
unfavourable. It is however well worth 
flowering under glass, forcing readily 
and fully as free as D. gracilis^ while 
finer in habit and in leaf. 
Though, as he explains below, M. 
Lemoine has failed completely in cross- 
ing D. crenata with any other kind, he 
With coloured plate from a drawing by H. G. Moon. 
