II 
SPRING 
57 
daffodils.” The bulbs are to be bought at a fairly 
cheap price now, and you will find no way more 
satisfactory of spending a half-crown of pocket- 
money than by the purchase of some for your 
spring garden. Nothing is more charming than 
the ordinary wild daffodil, which appears like 
a golden carpet spread in many an English 
meadow in April. To learn the names and 
appreciate the beauties of the hundreds of 
varieties now in cultivation is quite beyond the 
capacity of even the wisest child, but still a 
little could be learnt, and gradually a small 
collection of some of the finest and more distinct 
might be got together in your garden. It is 
quite bewildering to any one not knowing much 
about daffodils to make out a daffodil catalogue. 
Without some knowledge or explanation it is 
indeed a puzzle, and, having experienced the 
difficulty myself, I will try clearly to define 
what a few of the many names signify. 
Daffodils belong to a family of plants (part 
of the natural order of Amaryllidce ) called 
Narcissus, after a character in Greek mythology, 
a youth who was supposed to be changed into 
this flower. It is a very large family, embracing 
a vast number of species or distinct varieties ; 
so, to make it less complicated, these are grouped 
together according to the shape of the flower— 
those with long trumpets, those with cups or 
