2 GO 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 3, 1884. 
variety. Telemonius fl. pi. is perhaps the best known of all tbe 
double Daffodils. Mr. Wolley Dod has what he considers the single 
Telemonius, which is large and distinct from any I have seen. The 
Tenby Daffodil, N. obvallaris, is nearly self-coloured, but the perianth 
divisions are rather paler than the cup. I recently saw a flower of 
N. obvallaris major which was not much larger than the type, but the 
perianth segments were spreading at right angles to the trumpet, and 
rather broader than the species. It was collected in the Pyrenees, 
and I fancy Mr. Burbidge is responsible for the name. 
Bulbocodium vernum. —This is a pretty little bulbous plant, but 
pink Colchicum-like flowers preceding the leaves ; a tuft of it looks 
very effective in the woodland or at the foot of the rockery. 
Originally introduced from Spain about 1629, it was well known to 
Parkinson, who minutely describes it in his “ Garden of Pleasant 
Flowers ” under the name of the “ Meadow Saffron of the Spring," 
but he makes no mention of the variegated-leaved variety which we 
now have, the leaves being margined with white. I find no mention 
of this in the old authors. Sweet does not note it as far as I 
have seen. 
Muscari moschatum major or flavum.— This is a decided im¬ 
provement upon the pale-coloured typical form— i.e., if it may be 
regarded as a variety of M. moschatum at all, and if any of the 
Grape Hyacinths are distinct I am inclined to think this is, and the 
name macrocarpum given to it in Sweet’s “ British Flower Garden,” 
t. 210, should, I think, be retained rather than M. moschatum major, 
under which it is now distributed from continental centres. Certainly 
it favours N. moschatum more than any other species I know, but 
the perianth is much larger, decidedly ventricose, and not fluted, 
while the colour is a long way ahead. The first flowers to open are 
yellowish, ultimately tinged with red, while the upper ones are violet 
and in striking contrast with the other’s, and this gives the plant a 
very distinctive appearance. It is rather slow to increase by bulb 
offsets. Last year, however, I saved a batch of seed, and the seed¬ 
lings are coming on well. It will be only by this means that it 
will become anything like plentiful in our gardens. Sweet says the 
figure referred to was taken at Messrs. Whitley & Co.’s nursery at 
Fulham, who received it as long back as the year 1812 from Con¬ 
stantinople, from whence it was sent by Lady Liston, and it is said 
to be one of the principal flowers with which the Turkish females 
continue to correspond in secret with their lovers. 
M. atlanticum. —One of the most handsome of the blue-flowered 
Grape Hyacinths, and second only in this respect to the rarer M. 
armeniacum. The peduncles are about 6 inches high, the floriferous 
portion 2 inches long, thickly covered with flowers. Perianth three 
lines long, cylindrical, slightly bulged in the middle, with a large 
open mouth and slightly spreading white rounded divisions, the tube 
being deep cserulean blue. It increases freely, and flowers equally 
free, so that very quickly a good tuft is formed, and a pretty feature 
added to the bulb garden. 1 am referring to its behaviour in a rich 
sandy soil with a good drainage. I am rather doubtful if it thrives 
so happily in a damp cold position or in clayey soil. 
Anemone patens. — A large form of A. Pulsatilla of European 
hills, coming to us from the mountain ranges of north-west America. 
It grows about a foot high, the flower heads 3 inches or more across 
(one I measured this morning was rather over 4 inches), the sepals 
of a rich violet-purple colour and stout, surrounded by foliaceous 
silky bracts. The peduncle is also very silkjq as well as the leaves, 
which are larger than those of the ordinary Pasqueflower, the 
segments broader and stouter. I cannot find that it extends as far 
west as California, but there is a species found there which is very 
closely related to this, if indeed it is not identical, or at most but a 
slender variety.—T. C. 
A LECTURE ON THE NARCISSUS. 
[Delivered before the Royal Horticultural Society at South Kensington, April 1st, 1884, 
by F. W. Burbidge, F.L.S., Curator, Trinity College Botanical Hardens, Dublin, and 
formerly of the Royal Gardens and Herbarium, Kew.] 
INTRODUCTION. 
Having been years ago (18G8) a student in your then extensive and beau¬ 
tiful gardens at Chiswick, it gives me all the more pleasure to read a short 
paper here to-day. My subject is the Narcissus, or Flower of March,” the 
Daffodil that “ comes before the swallow dares.” Tennyson seems undecided 
whether to make the Daffodil belong to blustering March or to showery 
April. We all remember his “ Roaring Moon of Daffodils,” but in a still 
prettier passage he sings of 
“ A rosy blonde, and in a college gown, 
That clad her like an April Daffodilly.” 
Pleasant as is my duty, yet when I look around me here I feel that it is 
presumptuous indeed on my part to speak before you on these flowers beau¬ 
tiful, since I must needs do so in the presence of those who really know far 
more of these fair “ Lilies of Lententide ” than I can hope to tell to you in 
half an hour. 
■•'t Around us here to-day is, without a doubt, by far the finest collection of 
Narcissus blossoms ever brought together in one place. Thanks to the 
energy of the honorary and active officers of your Society ; thanks also many 
and sincere to the liberality of amateurs, as also to the enterprise of Hade 
cultivators, we have here at our feet to-day a ‘‘ field of the cloth of gold 
even more brilliant than that one in particular which the old chroniclers 
have described so well; and the result of this gathering is a focussing, as it 
were, of all the golden beauty which Daffodil cups may contain. Speaking 
of Daffodil colour reminds me that this is by no means an ordinary 
show—no prizes are offered to-day, unless indeed it be that “ crown of wild 
Olive” which the Greeks prized more than gold. We have here to-day an 
exhibition of flowers which have come to us for very love, and not for the 
sake of money prizes—an exhibition which proves that devotion to Flora as 
a queen among us is as yet a living truth, and that among or around the 
hearts of all true gardeners there is woven “ a thread of twisted gold. But 
our time is limited, and I shall not further trouble you by way of introduc¬ 
tion, but shall now with your permission proceed to the history of the 
Narcissus itself. 
HISTORY. 
It is generally believed that the earliest, or at least one of the earliest 
species of this genus to attract the attention of the wise men and poets of 
Greece first, and of Italy afterwards, was our garden favourite of to-day, 
Narcissus poeticus, hence, no doubt, its popular name of the “ Poet’s Nar- 
cissus.” Both Narcissus poeticus and Narcissus Tazetta (“ Little Cupped 
Italian ” or “ Polyanthus Narcissus ”) are mentioned by Dioscorides. V irgil 
also alludes to an “ empurpled Narcissus,” and although the exact plant is 
doubtful, yet it is by many believed that it was some form of N. poeticus 
which he had in view. Of far more moment to ourselves now is the great 
central fact that the Narcissi of our own gardens are as lovely here to-day 
as they were when the poets of Greece and Italy first sang their praises. 
Nearly all early writers agree in treating this flower as an emblem of 
that beautiful boy whose name it bears. He is said to have slighted the 
nymph Echo in favour of his own shadow, and Nemesis changed him into this 
blossom as a punishment for his self-esteem. It is a deep-laid myth, and a 
pretty one as often told to us by the poets, and in one of the best of English 
translations we are informed the attendant nymphs in searching for the body 
of the ill-fated hero could see nothing but uprising stalks bearing golden 
blossoms— 
« And looking for his corse they only found 
A rising stalk with yellow blossoms crowned.” 
According to Shakespeare Proserpina let fall the Daffodil flowers she had 
been gathering when seized by Pluto, but, as Professor J. P. Mahaffy, F.T.C.D., 
informed me some time ago, the earliest accounts of this myth tell us a little 
too much, the flowers being therein spoken of as “ Black Narcissus,” hence 
we must believe, or at least suppose, that some other flower was originally 
intended. It may have been some Fritillary which had pleased tbe fair girl, 
since even at so late a date as 1629 we find John Parkinson in his “ Paradisus ” 
alluding to Fritillarias as “ Chequered Daffodils.” No doubt like Lily, Rose, 
and Violet, the name Daffodil or Narcissus had a much wider meaning and 
application in olden times than we give them to-day. For example, the Rev. 
H. N. Ellacombe in his “ Plant Lore of Shakespeare ” (p. 57), tells us that 
the “ Rose of Sharon ” was the large yellow Narcissus common in Palestine 
and the East generally, of which Mahomet said, “ He that has two cakes of 
bread let him sell one of them for some flowers of the Narcissus, for bread is 
food for the body, but Narcissus is the food of the soul.” 
The name Daffodil is said by some scholars to be “ simply the old English 
word ‘ affodyle,’which signifies that which cometh early.” Dr. Prior, how¬ 
ever, who is no mean authority, looks upon it as a corruption of the Latin 
Asphodelus, and thus it may be identical with the Asphodel. He further 
tells us that the name Daffodil “ was subsequently confused with that of 
another flower, the so-called Sapharoun,” or “ Saffron Lily.” By alliteration 
the “ Sapharoun Lily,” on becoming blended with “ Affodilly,” became by a 
