June 5, 1892. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
411 
of slugs during the early growth of the plants. I tried the crowbar 
system of planting on undug land, but on our strong soil it was not 
a success. I never use liquid manure or any other stimulant after 
the plants are put out ; such treatment only renders the plants soft 
and in a bad condition to withstand severe JErost.—E. M. 
THE GENUS NARCISSUS NEAR BAYONNE. 
(^Concluded from page 390.') 
Of the remaining species of Narcissus which are included in 
the catalogues of the local Flora of Bayonne it is very difficult to 
adjust the claim which each makes to be indigenous. N. odorus I 
have never seen there except in cultivation, though it is un¬ 
doubtedly naturalised in more than one place a few miles to the 
north and the east of Bayonne. It is not largely cultivated for 
the flower markets, where it does not seem to be in much 
favour. The few bunches I saw were all composed of the large 
Campernelle, the N. calathinus of the “Botanical Magazine.” 
N. juncifolius is a mountain plant, and does not come nearer to 
Bayonne than Mondarran, a low stony mountain fifteen miles to 
the south. Of the varieties of Tazetta many appear in the flower 
shops from the beginning of January. The earli st consist for 
the most part of the Italian kinds with yellow per ianth and orange 
crown, and are imported from the Riviera with Tea Roses, Carna¬ 
tions, and other flowers too tender to stand the winter of Biarritz 
out of doors. 
These Italian Tazettas hardly appear in cultivation in the 
nurseries of the south-west of France, but one variety comes in 
abundance with them, on which I must say a few words—namely, 
N. papyraceus. It is true that this Tazetta, called by French 
botanists N. niveus, occurs apparently wild in great abundance in 
several places near Bayonne. One hill side, an old pastuie sloping 
to the south near the village of Villefranc, contains dense b^ds of 
this bulb at intervals over several acres. They may, perhaps, be 
indigenous, but the leaves are browned, the flowers dwarf and 
stunted, and the general appearance of all I saw growing in the 
fields was that of plants wishing for a warmer winter, as this is 
especially a winter flowering species. In cultiva'ion they seem to 
fare better, and I saw them in gardens looking less unhappy than 
they looked in uncultivated ground. There is a degenerate sort 
of Tazetta with a narrow yellow crown and a thin white perianth, 
which I suspect is an indigenous form, and is found thinly scattered 
about the district. Another, which I could not trace to any place 
where it could pretend to be wild, is grown iu large quantities in 
the peasants’ vegetable grounds, and also in all the nui sery gardens. 
It is a strong many-flowered variety, with a good and broad 
yellow crown, and a round well imbricated white perianth. I made 
inquiries everywhere about it. Some said it was collected in 
Spain, others told me that it occurred sparingly about the country. 
The graveyard round the church of Arcangues, famous for the 
obstinate fighting between the English and French for irs possession 
during the winter of 1813 (it is about five miles from Biarritz), is 
full of this Narcissus, but it has evidently been planted there, and 
it seems to be a favourite variety with the natives. Plate 29 in 
Mr. Burbidge’s “ History of the Narcissus ” is an excellent figure 
of it. 
Another form very common in cultivated ground, but not even 
reported as wild, has a white perianth and cream coloured crown. 
It is abundant in the markets, but I think only from nursery 
grounds. I believe it is known as the Scilly White in England, 
and is the N. ochroleucus of some ca'alogues. The next species 
to be spoken of is that called N informed lu-*, and is of special interest 
as connected with local botany, because it ceems tf) have been 
known and described as native near Bayonne by Loiseleur, Godron, 
and other French botanists before it was recognised as a wild form 
elsewhere, but it was found by Mr. Mogyr dge wild in Liguria and 
described and figured by him iu his “ Plants of the Rivie a.” It 
may have been brought thence by ecclesi.-.srics to tiie south-west 
of France in the same way as we know other Dnffodils to have been 
naturalised away from their home It is a very hardy kind, but 
does not find great favour in English gardei s, though it has 
long been known there. Its chief merit in the es'imation of 
the French florists is its very early floweiing. in which it 
rivals N. papyraceus, and it is brought in Lrge bunches to the 
markets early in January, and for nea^-ly two months after. I 
observed it more frequently in the vegetable crounds of the 
peasants near Bayonne and Biarritz than any other sp' cies, grow¬ 
ing in enormous bunches, a yard in breadth of dense leaves and 
flowering freely. I did not find it anywh-r- c. r ai‘dy wld, but it 
has alw'ays been recorded as wild at several places n-ar Bimnne, 
Peyrehorade and Dax, and it is impossible to sav ro-cay whether it 
first grew in the neighbourhood spontaneously or was b; ought there. 
The leaves of this species are thick and of that dark glossy green 
which indicates affinity with the rush-leaved class rather than with 
the Tazettas. 
N. Jonquilla, the small sweet Jonquil, is hardly claimed as a 
wild species of these parts of France, though it is reported as 
having occurred in one or two spots adjacent to cultivation ; but 
there is a part of the country near Cape Breton, about twelve miles 
to the north of Bayonne, where the outskirts of a vineyard and 
several other spots near it are full of the double variety of it. The 
leaves and flowers are of large size, and the bulbs larger than any I 
have seen of the kind in the English bulb shops. The demand for 
the bulbs does not seem equal to the supply, but they are protected 
by the owner. There is no record of their introduction, but they 
can hardly be native. N. biflorus seems to be wild in the same way, 
and perhaps for the same reason, as the large yellow double 
Diffodil—namely, that it has such a constitution and so readily 
adapts itself to the conditions it finds as to become easily 
established by mere accident. French botanists seem to think that 
there are two forms of biflorus, the one a species and the other a 
hybrid between N. Tazetta and N. poeticus. The true species, they 
say, is found in the south-west of France. It is the same as is 
found established as wild in many parts of England and Wales. It 
occurs in many spots in the district of which we are speaking, 
generally in meadows near rivers, but by no means particular as to 
its surroundings, and generally growing in densely crowded 
clumps. 
N. poeticus, the last species which we have to enumerate, is 
said to be wild in one grove two miles to the north of Bayonne. 
It also is found plentifully on the border of a vineyard near 
Peyrehorade, the variety in both places being a tall form of N. p. 
rpcnrvus, and all uniform in character. Further eastward in the 
High Pyrenees, where the species is found in great abundance, the 
variety is small of flower and more slender. The natural range of 
N. poeticus is from the mountains of central Spain eastward 
through Switzerland and northern Italy into Greece, where it 
takes a less ornamental shape, with narrow stellate perianth and a 
narrow crown. From its very limited range in the lowlands about 
Bayonne it seems more probable that it was introduced there than 
that it is truly native. 
This is all I have been able to find out about the Narcissi which 
grow on the lowlands and low mountains of the south-west corner 
of France, and it will be observed that there are only two kinds, 
the citron-coloured variety of the Hoop Petticoat, and the very 
variable but characteristic straw-coloured trumpet Daffodil, of 
which I have spoken without any doubt as to their indigenous 
character. Some of the others may be really native, but we know 
how greatly the distribution and prevalence of these flowers have 
been modified by the hand of man ; so that, considering the want 
of continuity, or in other cases the small extent of the area over 
which they are found, and their absence from the wilder parts of 
the country at a distance from cultivation, it is better not to assent 
unreservedly to their right to a place in the local native Flora. 
—0. WoLLEY Dod, Edge Hall, Malpas. 
TOP AND BOTTOM CROPPING. 
Whilst in planting fruit orchards it is perfectly safe and sound 
practice to put bush fruits even fairly thick beneath and around 
standard fruit trees, it is none the less important that just as the 
tops of the latter spread and roots demand inore space and food, so 
should the bushes on the ground be materially thinned. Double 
cropping is all very well up to a certain point, because at the first 
it is not in a strict sense double cropping, as the ground is but 
carrying what it is fully able to do. The harm begins when the 
soil is asked to carry two diverse crops whilst having capacity to 
produce only one. 
When in a Middlesex orchard the other day, where there has 
been for many years one of the finest undercrops of Goc^e- 
berries and Currants to be found in the county, I observed that 
many of the top trees—Apples, Pears, and Plums—were giving 
out in an alarming degree, the points of the branches or shoots 
being dead wholesale. I pointed out to the owner that he was 
killing his trees because of the density of the undergrowth, and 
he admitted it, “but then,” said he, “whilst as a tenant I may 
deatioy every bush in the orchard (several thousands) if I ^ 
may not destroy one top tree ; and yet, taking one year with another, 
the bushes are more profitable than are the top trees. That was 
of course a matter for consideration and settlement between land¬ 
lord and tenant, but it was morally certain that because the top 
trees were deprived of that root food on the surface of the soil 
they so much needed by the dense bush growth, and would in a 
few years be valueless to both tenant and landlord, both must 
