312 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 22, 1886. 
out of the top ventilators ? Ammonia is created by the natural 
decomposition of animal and vegetable substances, but being naturally 
light ascends very rapidly, especially in a somewhat dry atmosphere. 
It is brought back to the earth by the rains, the latter also absorbing 
some of it, hence its softness and superiority for watering and other 
purposes. Who of us has not revelled in the smell accompanying 
rain falling after a spell of dry weather, or who has failed to observe 
how rapidly plants grow under its influence ? It is the ammonia we 
detect, and it is this, accompanied with an increasing amount of 
aqueous vapour, that proves so favourable to vegetation generally. 
What is to prevent us imitating or even improving on Nature in this 
respect, as we like to flatter ourselves we are always doing in other 
ways ? 
No one with any practical experience will dispute that Vines are 
apt to break strongly, evenly, and quickly when under the influence 
of aqueous vapour and ammonia. The vapour has too long had the 
credit for this good work, when in reality much of it is due to the 
ammonia, with its softening influence accompanying it. While this 
heap of manure and leaves remains in the house the frequent 
syringings and dampings serve to hasten decomposition, and a small 
quantity, it may be sufficient, ammonia is given off, but it is usually 
removed soon after the Vines have commenced active growth, and no 
other steps are taken to provide the necessary supply. I repeat 
necessary supply, as I am of opinion that a certain quantity is most 
beneficial, and further ammonia is very frequently more absent in 
vineries than it is the various forcing and plant-growing structures, 
where both liquid and artificial manures, in which ammonia largely 
predominates, are employed at certain intervals. When plants of 
Cucumbers and Melons are approaching the trellis of a house they 
make much more rapid progress than heretofore, and the foliage and 
stems increase in size and thicken surprisingly fast; while the Grape 
leaves are always the finest and thickest in texture at the top of the 
house. In one case the increased amount of heat and light to which 
they are subjected has the credit for this improvement, and the 
largest share of the sap with more air is usually considered the 
principal agents in the formation of this superior foliage, coupled 
with larger bunches of fruit; but who can positively assert that the 
ammonia, which is bound to accumulate at the highest points, does 
not materially benefit the folage and plants in each instance ? 
If we are allowed to take it for granted that ammonia in the 
atmosphere does act most beneficially upon plant life, what we have 
next to determine is the quantities that the leaves imbibe, the amount 
in excess that would prove injurious, when and to what it would prove 
injurious, and how best to keep up the requisite supply in our vineries. 
It is in these respects we require the assistance of others more ex¬ 
perienced, as well as scientific readers, and I hope to gain some 
useful information on the subject. That it will do good I have had 
fair opportunities of observing, independent of what is done by 
Nature in the open, and that an incautious use of materials highly 
charged with ammonia will work much mischief I have also had 
good evidence of, though not in vineries after the foliage is develop¬ 
ing. One excellent and well-known gardener that I served under was 
a firm believer in the advantages attending an artificially created 
ammonia-charged atmosphere, and in those days he grew Black Ham¬ 
burgh and other Grapes to perfection, and won several good prizes 
with them. Another gardener, an old master and friend of mine, who 
cultivates Grapes still more extensively, and annually wins numerous 
prizes at some of the best shows in the country, also has his own 
method of keeping up the supply of ammonia, believing this to both 
benefit or feed the foliage, and also act as a preventive of red spider. 
The first-mentioned gardener used to fill the evaporating troughs on 
the hot-water pipes with fresh horse manure, and in this manner the 
aqueous vapour and a good supply of ammonia, quite sufficient in fact, 
was maintained. In the other instance the floors of the houses were 
damped down twice a week with weak guano water, and this again is 
a safe and sure method of supplying ammonia, and much preferable, as 
being agreeable to the senses, than farmyard liquid manure, though 
the latter contains a great amount of ammonia. I should not think 
of attributing these successes in Grape culture solely to this practice 
of charging the atmosphere with ammonia, as this was only one 
important detail in a generally good routine. 
It remains to be added that the ammonia is assimilated by the 
leaves when these are considerably advanced and capable of perform¬ 
ing their functions, and that only small quantities are thus absorbed. 
Consequently it will be seen that frequent small doses or a constant 
weak supply is both preferable, and, as I shall attempt to prove, much 
safer than an occasional strong dose. As before stated, no case of 
injury to Vines from an overdose of ammonia has come under my 
notice, but 1 have seen some perilously narrow escapes. A friend of 
mine has the advantage of being able to secure good supplies of 
covered farmyard manure, and this is so very rich in ammonia that a 
liberal top-dressing to a Vine border in an early house gave off, when 
the house was first closed and damped down, sufficient to fetch off all 
the leaves on strong plants of white Indian Azaleas, as well as other 
plants, being forced ; but as the Vines were not in leaf no mischief 
resulted to them. Here we have injured the foliage of Tomatoes by 
an incautious addition of soot to soil with which lime had been freely 
mixed before it was carted to us, this at the time being our only avail¬ 
able loam. Having previously observed how much injury was done 
by confined fumes of ammonia from soot with which lime has come 
in contact, a repetition of this occurrence would not have happened 
had I been aware of what was going on. Probably others can give 
more striking instances where ammonia in excessive quantities has 
proved most injurious, and I can easily imagine that both the delicate 
foliage and newly set berries of the Grape would be the first to suffer 
from it.—W. Iggulden. 
[There is much danger in the excessive use of ammonia in vineries 
when the foliage and fruit are in the condition indicated—namely, 
young and tender.] 
THE DAFFODIL. 
[A pap3r by the Rev. C. Wolle 7 Dai, real at the Horticultural Club, April 14th.] 
I have been asked to open a discussion on the Daff odil. I therefore 
confine myself to the Daffodil proper. The subject of these notes is 
the Trumpet or Ajax Daffodil (Narcissus Pseudo-Narcissus) and its 
varieties. First as to the name Daffodil. In old English, say Parkinson’s 
time, nearly 300 years ago, the word Daffodil was used as an equivalent 
of the Latin and Greek flower name Narcissus. The N. poeticus, the N. 
tazetta, the Jonquil, the N. triandrus, and the rest of that class were all 
called Daffodils, whilst to the Trumpet Daffodils the name pseudo-Nar- 
cissus or False Daffodil was given. Usage, however, has transposed these 
names. We now call the Trumpet flowers Daffodils, and most of the 
other kinds Narcissus, and it is not desirable to interfere with usage in 
these matters, or to try to force changes of popular names. By the name 
Daffodil, therefore, we mean the Trumpet Daffodil, excepting, however, 
the Hoop Petticoats, which, though anciently called Pseudo-Narcissus 
by Clusius and others, are quite distinct in kind. Of these Trumpet 
Daffodils, Linnaeus, who wrote in the middle of last century, made five 
species ; and Haworth, who wrote half a century ago, and whose nomen¬ 
clature has been in a great measure adopted both by English and by 
foreigD botanists, made twenty-nine species. 
Mr. Baker, however, in a review of the genus Narcissus, written 
seventeen years ago, includes all the Trumpet Daffodils in one species 
called N. Pseudo-Narcissus, retaining, however, the five Linnsean species 
of it as sub-species or sections, under which he classes, with Haworth’s 
names, the principal known wild varieties. I shall follow this arrange¬ 
ment, giving reasons, however, for one or two exceptions. I shall use the 
name Pseudo-Narcissus in three ways, distinguishing as follows : — 
1, Pseudo-Narcissus the species, including all the Trumpet Daffodils. 
2, Pseudo-Narcissus the sub-species or section, as admitted by Mr. Baker; 
and 3, Pseudo-Narcissus the type, the average form of the English wild 
Daflodil or Lent Lily—the Garland of old writers. Most of you are well 
acquainted with the technical terms for the different parts of the Daffodil, 
but as there may be a few here who are not, I will spend two or three 
minutes in defining them, that what I say afterwards may be more clearly 
understood. I need not define the bulb. 
The flower stalk as high as the first joint is called the scape. The 
scape in the species Pseudo-Narcissus is usually one-flowered, but in a 
variety, or sub-species, called muticus, it is sometimes two-flowered. In 
most varieties two-flowered scapes are rare. The normal, or regular 
scape, is straight and upright, but in the form of minor, being slender, apt 
to bend downwards. The scape in p3eudo is more or less compressed or 
ancipitous, and more or less hollow. 
The Leaf. —This varies in breadth from a quarter of an inch in the 
form called minimus, to an inch in some varieties of the section bicolor. 
It also varies much in thickness. The breadth is not always in propor¬ 
tion to the thickness or length of the leaf, or to the height or size of the 
flower. The leaves of some varieties are much twisted. In some they are 
far more conspicuously covered with glaucous bloom than in others. 
Some taper acutely at the ends, some are very bluntly rounded off, some 
decumbent, some upright. I cannot find any variety of form in leaf 
cross sections. As for the number of leaves to each flowering scape, I 
find that about 70 per cent, have three, the remaining thirty are nearly 
equally divided between two, four, and five leaves. In the section bicolor, 
however, the larger number of flower scapes have four leaves belonging 
to them, and some as miny as seven. In estimating this number care 
must be taken not to confuse the leaves belonging to different centres of 
growth in the same bulb. A bulb may produce only one flower scape 
and twenty or more leases, but then there are three or four centres, each 
of which will develope a new bulb a3 the growth matures. 
At the top of the scape there is a sort of joint or valve, where begins 
a membrane called the spathe, which entirely envelopes the flower 
whilst in bud. It sometimes fits tight and close, sometimes is very loose, 
either at the base or at the point, or both, as if far too large for the bud it 
encloses. Beginning also at the valve of the spathe is a distinct stalk, 
more slender than the scape, called the pedicel. Two-flowered scapes have 
two pedicels, but only one spathe. Tne pedicel connects the scape with 
the seed pod or fruit. It is mostly in this pedicel that the bending or 
deflexion takes place upon which depends the angle of the flower to the 
scape. The pedicel may be quite straight or turned at right angles to the 
scape at the spathe valve, or bent into a complete semicircle, or any interme 
