872 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May 19, 1892. 
from the spurs the evil was seriously aggravated. For ten seasons 
certainly I have never seen a presentaWe bunch from those Vines, 
as shanking always occurred. Leaving three shoots to a spur in 
the case of late varieties is bad practice. How can Grapes grown 
in this way be expected to keep during the winter ? There is no 
chance for the wood to mature, or for the berries to toughen their 
skins. If people who treat their Vines in this manner were to give 
a thought to the matter I think they would follow the excellent 
advice given by Mr. Dunkin on page 234. They would not think 
of planting three Cabbages in the place of one, and expect a good 
specimen. Why, therefore, should they thus overcrowd their 
Vines ? Abundance of foliage is to be desired, but it must not be 
at the expense of maturity, and it is not possible to have that 
where each leaf does not receive its full share of light and air. In 
the case of black Grapes I do not assert that the fruit will not 
colour when the leaves are crowded by the retention of an 
excessive number of shoots, because I know it will. I never 
saw better coloured examples of Madresfield Court and Alnwick 
Seedling than some which came under my notice last year in a 
vinery managed on the lines which I so strongly deprecate, but the 
bunches and berries were exceedingly faulty. The colour was the 
only redeeming feature in them, and it made but poor amends for 
other defects. 
Referring to Mr. Dunkin’s remarks on stopping and tying the 
shoots, there are but few of us who have vineries so constructed as to 
admit of the trellis being 2 to 3 feet from the glass. Vineries 
have often to act as plant houses also, and they will not admit 
of so much of the space being occupied by the trellis. In far 
too many instances the vineries are not built high enough. In 
dealing with strong shoots, which have to be bent in an opposite 
direction to that in which they tend naturally, and which are more 
difficult to get down to the wires than others, I pass a stout piece 
of bast around the shoot a couple of inches or so from its base, 
securing it to the main rod. Such a support is of the greatest 
possible aid in bending a strong shoot, which might otherwise snap 
from its socket, although tied carefully. 
Where the trellis is only 17 inches or so from the glass, and 
very stx’ong shoots of Alicante have to be dealt with, the usual 
difficulty in thinning this variety is increased if they cannot be 
got down to their final position before the bunches are ready for 
thinning, as the wires and leaves have to be contended with. Know¬ 
ing the great inconvenience of thinning such bunches before 
they are brought into their final position below the wires I always 
endeavour to arrange for that before the berries are large enough 
to be thinned by the aid of tying the shoots near the base as 
previously described. I thus generally manage without serious 
mishap. The wires in our case are not further from the glass 
than the distance noted above.—E. M. 
THE GENUS NARCISSUS NEAR BAYONNE. 
(^Continued from page 352.') 
The special pseudo-Narcissus of Bayonne and its neighbour¬ 
hood, which is undoubtedly indigenous there, is the one generally 
known as pallid us praecox. Parkinson’s description of “the early 
straw-coloured bastard Daffodil,” to which he gave that name, 
hardly suits the average specimens which we see. He says, “ The 
leaves are of a mean size (^.e., middle size, as the context shows), the 
stalk riseth up a foot or more, whereon standeth one large great 
flower, equalling the greatest Spanish Daffodil before described in 
the largeness of his trunk, and having the brims turned up a little, 
which maketh it seem the larger ; the wings are short, and stand 
straight outright ; ail the whole flower is of one even colour, some¬ 
what like unto the colour of lemon peel, but somewhat whiter, 
which usually we call a straw colour,” &c. These characters may 
apply to selected specimens, both as to size and to colour ; for I 
have seen and grown in my own garden Daffodils collected some¬ 
where near Bayonne having flowers of uniform colour, and quite 
as large as those of maximus. But the ordinary Daffodil of the 
country is not remarkable for size, nor is it uniform in colour, the 
crown or trunk being somewhat darker than the perianth ; bat in 
this particular the flowers vary in different woods a few miles 
apart, and even in the same wood, for I have found amongst the 
ordinary forms isolated specimens of a uniform pale cream colour. 
The largest average of size which I have seen were collected for 
me in a wood at St. Barthelemy, about six miles north-east of 
Bayonne. Still the pa'e Daffodils of the department of the Basses 
Pyrenees have distinctive characters of their own besides colour. 
The leaves are pale green, more like those of Snowdrops than of 
common Daffodils, and the loose spathe gives the bud before 
opening a peculiar shape, like that of the bud of the common 
English Arum. 
I do not think that this Bayonne variety has a very wide range 
of distribution. Daffodils of the same colour were found by Mr. 
Peter Barr as far west as the Asturias in Spain ; but I cultivated 
several lots which he kindly sent me of these, and they are not the 
same as those from Bayonne. Others used to be sent to me by 
M. Bordere from Gedre. They were collected for him, he said, in 
the Eastern Pyrenees ; but these were not similar either in form or 
habit, only in colour, to what I got from the valley of the 
Adour. I never had any of the variety which has now become so 
common in the English market, except what were collected within 
a few miles of Bayonne. Until the English colony grew up at 
Biarritz pallidus prsecox was safe in the obscurity of its native 
woods, but it is not and never was found near Biarritz. Perhaps 
the soil round there is too sandy for it. Though I searched nearly 
every wood as far as the Spanish frontier I never could find a true 
Daffodil on the western side of the Nive, which flows through 
Bayonne running north and south. On the eastern bank of the 
Nive they are common in all the woods, which slope up steep hills to 
a height of 400 or 500 feet; but the Daffodils are generally confined 
to the lower parts, ascending along the streams, of which there are 
many, to a height of about 200 feet. I never saw them except in 
woods, and no coppice of deciduous trees seems to be too thick for 
them. They show a decided preference for a northern or western 
slope, however steep, and generally avoid hills which face east or 
south, as the Hoop Petticoats do. For instance, they abound close 
up to Bayonne on the southern bank of the Adour, which runs 
east and west; but on its northern side they do not become common 
until the ground slopes again to the north. 
The demand for these bulbs for the English market has led to 
their cultivation both at Biarritz and also on a smaller scale in 
some of the peasants’ vegetable grounds near Bayonne. As most 
of the imported bulbs die in England in a year or two, and as they 
are sold very cheaply, the demand continues to increase. I am told 
that a few miles south-east of Bayonne, in the Basque country, the 
supply is unlimited ; but where the climate is so favourable for 
their increase they can be grown more easily in cultivation, and I 
think this mode of producing them is practised more every year. 
As wild plants I hardly ever noticed them in clumps, as if they 
multiplied by offsets ; but every bulb seems detached as if an inde¬ 
pendent seedling, and this, too, where the surface of the ground 
was bare, and there seemed every facility for increase. The sale 
of these as cut flowers is greater amongst the English visitors than 
the resident French. Large quantities come into the market, both 
at Biarritz and Bayonne, from the end of January onwards. I 
constantly inquired where they came from, and the vendors 
generally said from their own grounds ; but thousands daily were 
gathered from one or two market gardens in Biarritz, which were 
of themselves almost sufficient to supply the demand. 
I have not much to say of other varieties of Trumpet Daffodils. 
I never saw, nor could I get any sound evidence about the self 
yellow minor, though Bayonne has been recorded as a habitat for 
it. As for the major with the gashed trumpet and the upright large 
glaucous leaves, I once had a lot sent me said to have been collected 
at Yillefranc, four miles from Bayonne. They were mixed with 
some very large and peculiar pale Daffodils, and some which seemed 
intermediate in flower between the two kinds. They certainly did 
not come from where it was alleged that they did, and though I 
offered the collector more than five times their value to show me the 
spot, I never could get any trustworthy information about them, and 
concluded that they had been dug up from the private grounds of 
some chateau where major and pallidus prsecox grew together, and 
had produced seedlings. It is not improbable that major may be 
found wild not many miles away, but neither I, nor my kinsman, 
who has lived forty years on the spot, ever saw a bunch of major in 
the flower market. It is true that the same might be said of 
maximus, about the reported occurrence of which I was until 
lately sceptical, but which I hope I have now fairly run to ground. 
To this, however, I must allude when I next write.—C. W. Dod, 
Edge Hall, Malpas. 
(To be continued.) 
COTYLEDON (ECHEVERIA) FULGENS. 
This highly decorative winter-flowering plant merits much 
better cultivation than is generally bestowed upon it, and as 
much attention will now have to be given to the propagation and 
growing of various kinds of plants for the decoration of con¬ 
servatories and dwelling-rooms during the winter months, this 
easily grown and most accommodating plant ought not to be 
overlooked by intending cultivators. The present is a good time 
to increase the stock. Those who possess a few old plants should 
place them in a moderately warm house to induce a free growth 
of the heads and side shoots, which, when large enough, may be 
taken off and inserted in small pots. Almost any kind of soil will 
