May 5, 1892. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
333 
Stray Note8. 
V I( TOO, was surprised that" Rosa” should fiud " Niels ” unprofitable 
•oO grow in comparisou with white Roses, and when I read it turned to 
the Covent Garden Market price list, as given in the same number of 
the Journal. I there found yellow Roses quoted at exactly double the 
price of whites, and as “ Niels ” can certainly be grown in much 
greater quantity per square yard of glass than white Roses, I could only 
conclude there was a mistake somewhere. 
I can quite believe what “ A. D.” says about this Rose being more 
profitable if grown without heat, and so delayed till the time of the 
London season. And this set me wondering whether it would not be 
almost worth while for show purposes to have a glass house on the 
north side of a wall, so as if possible to delay them still further for the 
Rose shows. My “ Niels ” under glass have been worse than usual this 
year, owing to self and man being laid up for a long time in the winter, 
bnt 1 have had sufficient good blooms to win a handful of medals if I 
could have shown them in the Rose season. I expect somebody will 
devise some such means, and cut us all out some day. 
I am sorry to say that Collodion, as far as I can judge, has had no 
effect in saving either buds or wood from frost. I am the proud 
possessor of one standard Rose tree, and one only, with a little life left 
in it. All the standards of Her Majesty as well as Mar^chal Niel are 
killed; in a good many cases I think the stocks themselves have 
perished. About a dozen years ago, after a severe winter, a good many 
of my standard H.P.’s died off after pruning, and I found to my surprise 
that the death-wound in these cases was not in the Rose but in the 
Briar stem. I hope there has been no such loss among standard stocks 
during the late winter as in the one before it. I was unable to collect 
my own stocks this year, and so sent to ask a man to get some for me in 
February. By the beginning of March I was well enough to get into 
my greenhouse and prune and trim the roots there ; it was a wonder 
how anyone could bring so many nice stems with really no roots at all, 
but still more of a surprise to find that of the first fifty delivered just 
half the number were Blackberries! Some rumour of what I was doing 
must have got abroad, for a friend remarl'ed that he had heard I had all 
my Roses dug up and brought to me in the greenhouse to be pruned, but 
I was obliged to disclaim such a noble enterprise.— W. R. Raillem. 
The Rose Maggot. 
Will some of your readers kindly inform me through the medium 
of the Journal the best method of destroying the maggots that infest 
my Rose trees very much this year ?— Rosier. 
Is MABfiCHAL Niel a Tea Scented Rose ? 
I ASK this question because I find our trade growers are by no means 
unanimous on the point, and as I am not an exhibitor of Roses I am not 
sure what rule is usually followed with this variety. Possibly the 
N.R.S. has spoken in an authoritative manner at some time on the 
subject. At any rate, I should be glad to hear through your columns 
if this kind would be eligible, say in a competition of twelve Tea- 
scented Roses.—W. H. Divers. 
DAFFODILS AND NARCISSI. 
(^Continued from page 293.') 
Classification and Structure. 
I FEAR that, with many people, all the Trumpet Daffodils are put 
down as Lent Lilies, more or less diversified by cultivation, but I need 
hardly remind a society of gardeners that this is far from being the 
truth, or the whole truth, and indeed has but a small grain of truth in 
it. How many varieties there are now in commerce it would be difficult 
to say. Mr. Peter Barr, a well-known collector, put it to me at over 
500. It is rather a singular thing that a family of so many tribes and 
sub-divisions should not be a natural order in itself, but so it is. There 
is no such natural order in botany as the Narcissus. It belongs to the 
Amaryllidaceae, or Amaryllis family. The Hoop Petticoat Narcissus, in 
the arrangement of its pistil and stamens, shows the family resemblance 
most strongly. The Snowdrop belongs to the same natural order. 
Broadly speaking, the trumpet-shaped Narcissi, of which the Lent Lily 
is the common type, are called Daffodils ; and in this are included the 
Incomparable Narcissi, like Sir Watkin and others, with a shortened 
trumpet. When the term Narcissus is used in the popular sense, it 
applies to the flat-crowned sorts like the Pheasant-eyed Narcissus and 
the Polyanthus or Bunch-flowered, These are indeed true Narcisssi. 
This distinction is a popular rather than a botanical one, although 
the two branches of the family are structurally distinct also. In a 
Trumpet Daffodil the stamens (six in number) are of an equal length. 
In the true Narcissus three come to the level of the crown, the 
other three stopping midway in the tube. There are three natural 
groups, or families, or tribes, and these are known by their corona 
or crown, the first, called Magnicoronati, or great crowned ; the second 
Mediicoronati, or medium-crowned; the third Parvicoronati, or small 
crowned. For a homely description these may be called the 
grand trumpeter or coffee-cup section, the chalice-cupped or tea-cup 
section, and the Poet’s Narcissus, or tea-saucer section. For those 
who think that a yet shorter description might have been found, a 
wag at the Daffodil Conference suggested, for everyday use, the terms 
" long noses,” “ short noses,” and “ flat noses.” Perhaps there was 
more in his racy description than he was aware of, for there is 
much to be said in favour of a good nose—in Daffodils, at all events. 
As a good and unmistakeable type of the great crowned, Maximus, 
Horsefieldi, and Golden Spur serve as examples. Of the medium 
crowned. Sir Watkin, Queen Bess, and Stella show the type. The 
Pheasant-eyed or Poet’s Narcissus is a good illustration of the small 
crowned. The question of colour, as in the case of Horsefieldi (a bicolor), 
has no bearing upon this matter. Jonquils have, as their distinguishing 
characteristic, round, rush-like leaves, instead of flat leaves as the other 
Narcissi have. But the little Hoop Petticoat variety, and the Cyclamen- 
flowered triandrus, as well as N. intermedins and N. gracilis, have also 
rush-like leaves. Much attention has been given these past few years 
to a variety of the Polyanthus Narcissus called the Chinese Sacred 
Lily, or Joss Flower, or Good Luck Lily. In Canton it is called Shui 
Sin Fa, or the Water Fairy Flower. Some florists tried to identify 
it with varieties in British commerce, but it seemed to vary from 
them all. It appears to be a single or semi-double form of the Double 
Roman. The bulbs are grown in a kind of greasy grey mud-like 
sand, and are sent to Canton for sale before flowering time. They are 
much prized by the Chinese, who grow them in little shallow bowls 
filled with pebbles and water. A Chinaman is happy when he can have 
his Good Luck Lily in bloom on New Year’s Day, which nearly corre¬ 
sponds in date to our St. Valentine’s Day. As we decorate our churches 
at Christmas and Easter, so the almond-eyed Celestial decorates his 
Joss-house at the festival of the New Year. Whether this custom 
prevails in Joss-houses out of China I cannot say. 
Daffodils as Cut Flowers for Decoration. 
These flowers have a double qualification. In the growing state, 
either in the open border or in pots, they are highly decorative, and as 
cut flowers for the drawing-room, for the fashionable dinner table, or for 
the mantelpiece of an ordinary sitting-room, there are few flowers more 
lovely, none more graceful, and few, indeed, that so lighten up and 
brighten a dark room. For cut flowers those varieties which have long 
stalks are much to be preferred. Such varieties as Golden Spur, 
maximus cernuus, Horsefieldi, Sir Watkin, Stella, poeticus ornatus, the 
grand old fashioned Codlings and Cream with its more striking sister. 
Eggs and Bacon, and the beautiful double poeticus, or Gardenia- 
flowered Narcissus. The last three are doubles, and much to be recom¬ 
mended ; but, for cutting, single flowers, as a rule, are more useful and 
profitable, for they are lighter in appearance and they last longer. 
Fashions in flowers change as in everything else. In the days of our 
forefathers it was considered the correct thing to have everything in the 
way of house furniture as massive as it was possible to get it. The 
Codlings and Cream and the Eggs and Bacon Daffodils were conse- 
I quently thought highly of. They accorded with the prevai ing taste. 
Now, however, when we are on the aesthetic tack, the fashion in 
Daffodils has changed too, and the single varieties with their airy 
elegance and refinement of form are happily in the ascendant. These 
three kinds are, however, indispensable in ever so modest a collection. 
The Codlings and Cream has a rich soft creamy hue, while the Eggs and 
Bacon is unique with its orange-coloured petaloid stamens rising from 
their milk-white setting like a phoenix from its ashes. The lovely 
cernuus plenus, which has a perfectly double creamy white trumpet, is a 
grand flower. Sometimes, as in the case of the fine old double Daffodil, the 
trumpet instead of being entire is split, and the flower then assumes the 
form of a full-blown Rose. The latter appearance is likely to occur after 
a hot summer or if the bulbs are grown in a warm sandy soil. In a 
shady situation or in stiff soil they are more likely to retain their trumpet 
shape. All kinds should be cut before they expand into full bloom, 
just when they have slipped their hood or flower sheath and are showing 
the colour of the calyx, or perianth, as the calyx of a Daffodil is 
called. 
Immediately after being gathered they should be placed with their 
stalks in water in a darkened room—say, in a potting shed, or any other 
cool place, where they are not exposed to sunlight or to any artificial 
heat. The flowers will then open dean, fresh, and pure in colour, and 
will have three times the enduring qualities which those would have 
which were allowed to be in full bloom before cutting. Early morning 
is the best time for cutting Daffodils, and if it is intended to pack them 
and send them away they ought to be placed in water two or three 
hours previously. One of the very best for packing is the Tenby, the 
trumpet being short and stout, and not easily damaged. In arrang¬ 
ing Daffodils it is well, if possible, to place them in slender and 
fairly tall glasses, never upon any account crowding them together, 
but placing them loosely and naturally. As far as it can be done so 
dispose them as they would have looked when growing. Nothing looks 
worse than to see these lovely dowers huddled together in fat, podgy 
bunches. They ou-ht always to be garnished with foliage becoming 
them—their own leaves. Daffodils do not readily mix in any kind of 
society. They like to move in their own set. As the natural foliage 
is recommended, the question might fairly be asked. Would it 
not be robbing the plant to denude it of its leaves as well as its 
flowers ? Certainly it would, and the plant would quickly resent such 
treatment. 
In the Daffodil world, as among ourselves, while some command, 
others must obev. We must therefore look to the commoner sorts, such 
as the common Trumpet Major, the Lent Lily, or the Double Daffodil, 
to provide foliage to set off their more aristocratic brethren and sisters. 
If you take the leaves as well as the flowers from the finer sorts—many 
of which are not only costly to begin with, bnt are slow in reproducing 
