DAFFODIL DEVELOPMENTS. 23 1 
illustrations in old flower books, such as the anonymous " Theatrum 
Florae," and " Le Jardin du Roi tres Chrestien Henri IV " (1608) by 
Pierre Vallet, and to make experiments to see if he could not produce 
by designed cross-fertilization similar types of Daffodils to what he saw 
in these books and in Parkinson. The plate in the twenty-ninth 
volume of Edwards' " Botanical Register " (plate 38) is extremely inter- 
esting. The date is 1843, and the six flowers there depicted are the first 
hybrid Daffodils which are known to have been produced by human 
design. They are (1) N. Diomedes var. Crichtoni, in which the seed- 
bearer was the tiny minimus and the pollen parent some form of 
Polyanthus Narcissus. It features a type which we now call tridymus. 
(2) N. pallidus, which had minor, a small yellow trumpet form, as the 
female, and N. moschatus, a small white trumpet, as the male parent. 
(3) N. Spofforthiae- — the seed-bearer was an incomparabilis and the pollen 
parent N. poeticus stellaris. This is what used to be called a Burbidgei 
— ' Little Dick ' has been suggested as being somewhat similar. (4) N. 
Spofforthiae var. spurius. This came from the same seed-pod as the 
last and represents a poor example of a Barrii. (5) N. incompara- 
bilis aurantius. This showy white-perianthed flower with its orange- 
rimmed cup came from crossing a form of the wild pseudo- Narcissus 
with N. poeticus stellaris. (6) N. sub-concolor, a seedling from 
minimus crossed with poeticus stellaris. It resembles No. 4, but has a 
better perianth. For the purposes of this lecture this plate is extremely 
valuable, as it illustrates the start that was made by the very first of 
that ever-increasing army of seedling raisers who are now, and who 
probably ever have been, sustained in their endless quest of obtaining 
some better or more striking form or colour than their fellows, by 
yearly seeing displayed in all their glory at the shows wonderful new 
flowers such as the twelve home-made seedlings which won for 
Mr. P. D. Williams, of St. Keverne, Cornwall, the Engleheart Cup at 
the last London Show (1916) ; or those truly superb examples of Giant 
Leedsiis which the Rev. G. H. Engleheart sent to Birmingham as 
his representatives at the last show there (1916), when unfortunately, 
through ill-health, he was unable to be present in person. The bloom 
of one was of the purest white, of excellent form and substance, and 
nearly five inches in diameter. 
The work of Herbert was first of all carried on by Edward 
Leeds, a stockbroker, of Longford Bridge, near Manchester ; and then 
by William Backhouse, a banker, who, after he retired from business, 
lived on his property at St. John's, Wolsingham, Durham, where in 
1856 he began to hybridize. We have, as far as I am aware, no coloured 
prints or in fact any pictures of Backhouse's hybrids, but in a way 
this need cause no deep regrets, since we have in ' Emperor ' and 
' Empress,' which bloomed for the first time about the year 1864, 
visible results of his earlier crossings, and in ' Gloria Mundi,' * Barrii 
conspicuus,' ' Mrs. Langtry,' and ' Weardale Perfection/ visible results 
of his later ones (the last-named did not bloom till after Mr. Back- 
house's death in 1869) . All these are still features of an English garden 
