April 28, 1892. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
821 
Mr. Wright's remarks oa the disease will be re-echoed by many 
growers. Where the plants are grown in heated houses they can be 
fairly well managed, though there is nothing that will take the place of 
sunshine ; but in unheated structures the plants require constant watch¬ 
ing and care. With the utmost care last season the plants failed to be 
at all satisfactory ; dampness was a great enemy, for it meant an attack 
of the disease, while the dull sunless days favoured an outbreak that all 
the care bestowed did not check. It is all very well to keep cutting out 
the diseased leaves, but the plants soon show, by a declining vigour, that 
they cannot compete with the constant lopping off of their limbs, and 
sooner or later they become worthless. Once they lose their vigour, and 
it is impossible to get the flowers to set. Outdoor crops in recent years 
have been almost out of tbe question ; though plenty of fruits have set, 
the disease has taken such a hold of them before they were cut that 
the majority have to be destroyed. Many fruits appear sound 
when cut, but after they are placed in the houses to ripen they go 
black.—J. B. Biding, Chingford. 
DAFFODILS AT LONG DITTON. 
Although we from time to time hear laments with respect to the 
Daffodil disease, yet that scourge, if it be worthy of such an appellation, 
seems to be confined to limited areas, and to those growers who 
seem to be destined ever to be unfortunate. At Long Ditton Messrs. 
Barr & Sons have, we might almost say, millions of bulbs growing. 
Certainly there are some 8 or 9 acres thickly covered with Daffodils, and 
there is no more disease there than there are snakes in Iceland. It does 
not, of course, follow that the culture is abnormally good or the flowers 
of exceptional size, and so forth. What the firm rather aim at is to 
produce hard clean bulbs in enormous quantities, so as to ensure 
purchasers having good fiowering bulbs the first year of planting, for it 
is a great disappointment to Daffodil purchasers to find buibs so small 
or sjft that they need a year’s recouping before they will produce 
flowers. At Long Ditton it is not merely the immense variety found in 
the Daffodil which surprises the visitor, but it is also the quantities of 
the finer varieties which astonish him. Such long beds, such dense 
masses of flowers, such profusion and beauty are quite bewildering ; yet 
there is some possibility of making selections according to taste in spite 
of the immense numbers of varieties, because as seen growing in such 
abundance the diverse sorts show their true characters, and enable those 
making selections to do so with greater facility than can be the case 
when the selections have to be made from collections of cut flowers. 
This the market grower finds instinctively because of the wealth of 
blooms produced by Emperor, Horsefieldi, C. J. Backhouse, Beauty, 
Ornatus, Santa Maria, Frank Miles, and others when grown in 
quantity. 
Daffodils now have become market material of such importance that 
good stocks represent real worth, and so far as appearances go there is 
verv little prospect of any appreciable depreciation resulting. It seems 
■difficult to understand how the public did without Daffodils only a few 
years since. It would be more difficult to realise the public dispensing 
with them now or in future. Flowers come into the market very early 
in the year from warm southern countries, and keep the markets fully 
supplied until our own come in from outdoors in April and May, 
although vast quantities are produced by us exceptionally early under 
glass. Hence it is seen that Daffodil culture, whether for the supplying 
of flowers for market or for the production of bulbs for trade develop¬ 
ment, and to satisfy the growing tastes of amateur cultivators, has 
become a great industry and needs to be carefully catered for. That 
attention is also being closely applied to the production of novelties is 
also evidenced at Long Ditton. Mr. Peter Barr is now making a tour 
through Spain and adjacent countries for the purpose of hunting 
up varieties which have even in that well explored district escaped 
notice. But some raisers have been creating novelties through cross 
fertilisation, and one of the most noteworthy of these is Weardale, 
probably the finest of all the single trumpet Daffodils yet seen. The 
sepals are pale yellow and the tube is nearly pure white. ’ It is probably 
half as large again as is Emperor. Then comes Glory of Leiden, sepals 
pale yellow, trumpet rich yellow, very fine ; Madame de Graaf, nearly 
pure white throughout, a very full flower. Monarch is also a fine new 
variety of the trumpet section. Probably we have now as fine a 
selection of these large flowered single Daffodils as will be obtained. 
Mr. Engleheart has numerous pretty forms, one especially having the 
white tube edged with gold ; but so far as mere size is concerned that is 
perhaps big enough for all purposes, as variations in colour and mark¬ 
ings are now most desirable. 
Amidst such an abundance of varieties as may be now seen bloom¬ 
ing at Long Ditton beyond those already named, it would be possible to 
give a very long select list, but what would it avail? Those who want 
a good selection should see the Daffodils growing. Of my own fancy I 
thought the true N. cyclamineus, the sepals of which reflex back to the 
stem and are quite erect, to be a very interesting form ; whilst especially 
pleasing, not only because producing two and three flowers on a stem, 
but because so bold, erect, and of such a rich yellow self colour, is 
Bugulosus, and for cutting purposes I cannot conceive of a more useful 
variety. It is also sweet scented. Not a large flower, but one of 
remarkable floriferousness, is Santa Maria, and not less free, perhaps 
even more so, is Queen of Spain, sepals well reflexed, a really beautiful 
variety. Very pretty, too, is Mrs. Vincent, of the moschatus section, 
Ihe tube long and the sepals broad. William Goldring is yet 
another good form of this class. The big Sir Watkin, like many 
varieties, is hardly up to its usual size this year. Still there are 
some charms about Daffodils other than is found in mere size, and for 
ordinary garden or domestic decoration many of the medium-sized 
bloomers are perhaps the most pleasing. C. J. Backhouse and Barri 
conspicua are both especially charming of the coloured corolla section ; 
as, of course, also is the later and everywhere beautiful, pheasant-eyed 
ornatus. There are many things to be seen at Long Ditton to lend 
variety to the somewhat monotonous hues of the Daffodils, especially 
big beds of Anemone fulgens, blooming gloriously ; and large masses 
of various coloured Tulips ; blue Grape Hyacinths, rock Phloxes, Iris 
pumila in variety, and other flowers, whilst the big breadths of red 
foliage of the large collection of Paeonies all help to give welcome 
variety in coloration.—A. D. 
HERBERTIAS. 
Six species are now included in this genus, the name of which 
perpetuates that of the Hon. and Kev. W. Herbert, who studied the 
Irids, Amaryllids, and allied plants closely and carefully in the early 
part of the present century. Two forms, H. Drummondi and 
H. casrulea, are natives of Texas ; the remaining four, H. umbellata, 
H. brasiliensis, H. unguiculata, and H. pulchella, are found in South 
America. It will be unnecessary, however, to describe more than one— 
viz., the last, H. pulchella, as most of the others are either not in culti¬ 
vation or very scarce. This, though a native of a warm climate, is 
found to succeed well in a cool house or frame where frost can be 
excluded, and a little heat afforded in very damp weather. It is best 
grown in pots well drained, a compost of peat, a little turfy loam and 
sand, being adapted for it, supplying water carefully. 
In habit it is slender and graceful, with narrow leaves and pretty 
flowers produced singly on a scape 8 or 9 inches high. The sepals are 
about half an inch broad, 3 or 4 inches long, curving downwards, deep 
blue with a light streak extending down the centre. The woodcut 
(fig. 55) shows these characters very well. It may be observed that the 
figures of some varieties of H. pulchella given in the “ Botanical 
