130 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February 17, 1887. 
and even where the ground is more favourable for early sowing the 
attacks from mice, birds, and slugs often render a second sowing 
necessary. Although I strongly recommend transplanting Peas raised 
under glass, I am no advocate of raising them in heat, drawing them up 
weakly, and allowing them to get several inches in length previous to 
planting. I sow the Peas about the middle of February rather thick in 
shallow boxes, and place them in a cool house as near the glass as 
possible, and when they have grown about an inch above the soil I stand 
them out of doors in a sheltered place for a few days. In the lirst 
suitable weather they are transplanted in the open ground, a south 
border being the most suitable place for the earliest crop. In planting out, 
a line is stretched across the ground and a trench cut about 4 inches 
deep with a spade in the same way as would be done in planting a Box 
edging. The Peas are lifted out of the boxes and laid thinly along the 
trench, filling in the soil, and pressing it gently but firmly against the 
roots. After planting is completed draw as much soil up to the rows as 
will shelter them from cutting winds, and should bad weather follow a 
few Laurel branches or Fir stuck in close to the rows will afford all the 
shelter they will require, and as soon as warmer weather sets in they 
will make a start. I remember planting some out one year in the 
beginning of March, and two days after we had severe frost with east 
winds for several days. I gave the Peas up for lost. The men in the 
garden to whom the practice was new laughed at the anticipated failure, 
and I must admit that I had little hopes of the Peas surviving ; but 
on the return of better weather they came away, and all was well. I 
concluded that after such bad times as they were subjected to I should 
not for the future hesitate in transplanting Peas in the way I have de¬ 
scribed. 
Each grower has his specially favourite sorts. William I. has done 
good service, but this year I am tryiug Veitch’s Early. Chelsea Gem 
is good in cold frames for an early supply, as also is American Wonder. 
The plan I adopt is as for planting outside, only sowing earlier, and in a 
little warmth, and planting them 1 foot apart, a few pieces, from worn- 
out birch brooms placed each side of the rows keep them from falling 
over, facilitates gathering the pods, and prevents the stems turning 
yellow at the base.—W. Simpson, Knowsley. 
NOTES ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF 
CORBULARIA. 
By George Maw, F.G.S., F.L.S. 
JEead before the Scientific Committee of the Royal Horticultural Sooiety, Feb. 8th, 1887.] 
Corbularias of late year3 having become popular decorative 
plants, the whole of the known forms being now introduced to cultiva¬ 
tion, I think that a few notes on their characters and geographical dis¬ 
tribution, mainly derived from my own observations, may be acceptable 
to the Royal Horticultural Society. 
Although the greater number of the species of Narcissus have a wide 
geograpical range, many of them spreading over the whole area occupied 
by the genus, the sub-section Corbularia presents a contrast in the 
limited and compact area it occupies compared with the wide ranging 
of the entire genus Narcissus. The Spanish Peninsula is its metropolis, 
and beyond this the extension is very limited. It has a range of about 
10° in latitude—from 35° to 45° north ; and 12° in longitude—from 
9° west to 3° east. Forms of Corbularia are to be found throughout 
almost the entire Spanish Peninsula, and they extend sparingly beyond 
the Spanish frontier into France, and along the North African coast 
from Tangier to the longitude of Algiers. The most northern recorded 
habitat is near Bordeaux, and the most south-eastern at Guelt-es-Stel, 
150 miles south of Algiers, where I gathered Corbularia monophylla in 
the spring of 1873. Corbularias do not occur in the Balearic Islands. 
The general impression left by the careful study of all the forms is 
that they are merely connecting links of one variable species which is 
indivisible by any well marked boundary lines ; and however different 
the extreme forms may appear, they are connected by insensible grada¬ 
tions, between which there is no definite demarcation. 
Flower-colouring. —Every form of Corbularia is self-coloured, and 
however much the forms and species vary in shade, the segments are 
invariably of the same colour as the corona, except that they" are exter¬ 
nally green. The bicolor forms such as occur in most of the species 
of almost every other section of Narcissus, are never found in Corbularia. 
The filament is also invariably of the same colour as the corona and 
.segments. 
We find, however, two or three distinct sets of colouring—viz., white, 
primrose-yellow, and orange. I say sets of colouring, because, except¬ 
ing the white, the other two colourings—primrose-yellow and orange— 
run through, as it were, in duplicate the entire series of forms, how¬ 
ever variable they may be in stature— e.g., we have large primrose- 
yellow forms and large orange forms, small primrose-yellow forms and 
small orange forms, and the same colour duplicates of every size. I 
have felt inclined to give the white Corbularia monophylla from North 
Africa a separate sort of specific rank, from its invariable colouring of 
a kind that I was not aware occurred in any other form ; but I have 
been somewhat shaken in this conviction by Mr. Tait’s discovery near 
Oporto of a white form of Corbularia nivalis, the flowers of which are 
normally orange. 
Habitats, Altitude, and Distribution .—The range in altitude is from 
near the sea level to heights of from 6000 to 9000 feet; and my obser¬ 
vations show that there are no strikingly prevalent upland or lowland 
forms, many of them having wide ranges in altitude. The habitats are 
Generally moist boggy places. 
The several forms are never intermixed, each occupying a distinct 
habitat; indeed, I have only met with one case in which two different 
forms grow in proximity, and in this instance they were not associated, 
but occupied separate portions of the mountain pasture. 
I shall perhaps be able to more clearly express the facts I have 
generalised by describing as an itinerary through western France, Spain, 
Portugal, Morocco, and Algeria, mostly from my own observations, the 
successive forms of Corbularia that would be met with in such a tour. 
Commencing at Bordeaux, soon after leaving Bordeaux station, the 
moist healthy places in the Landes are at frequent intervals bespangled 
with the large sulphur yellow form, which is also seen occasionally by 
the sides of the railway as Bayonne is approached, and the same large 
pale form is frequent near the sea level in the neighbourhood of 
Biarritz. The following localities in France on the borders of the 
western Pyrenees may also be enumerated—Gradignan and Teste near 
Bordeaux, Agen, Dax, healthy places on Mount Olivet and the Palom- 
biers above Bagneres de Bigorre, Tarbes, between Bagneres de Bigorre 
and Tarbes, sandy places, Tiplo near Fumel, Prades, Yillefranche, 
Morlaas, Pan, and between Biarritz and Cambo. It is also abundant on 
Monte de la Haya at altitudes of from 2000 to 2400 feet, and on other 
mountains on the Spanish frontier near Irun. 
A small pale yellow form has recently been found near Biarritz. 
Passing into Spain, we find on the limestone hills of Pancorbo, at a 
height of 3000 feet, a form somewhat different to that prevailing in 
western France, with small bright yellow flowers on a long scape. Turn¬ 
ing northwards towards Leon, the moist places within sight of the 
.lailway are golden yellow in April with a small orange form, and a still 
smaller orange form, approaching nivalis in character, is abundant near 
Busdongo, at an altitude of from 4000 to 5000 feet, at the pass over the 
Asturias. 
Descending the north side of the Asturias, the same large pale yellow 
form, which prevails on the north side of the Pyrenees in western France, 
again presents itself in moist meadows near Oviedo, near Lugones, and 
between Oviedo and Gijon, and in the immediate neighbourhood of 
Gijon, a large orange form occurs. In passing by rail from Leon to 
Coruna small orange Corbularias were in abundance between Leon and 
Astorga, and west of Astorga the large orange form similar to that at 
Gijon occurred sparingly at intervals. 
Passing southwards, two forms, C. nivalis, with small orange flowers, 
the smallest known form, and C. Graellsii, with pale primrose-yellow 
flowers, occur abundantly on the Sierra Guadarrama at altitudes of from 
3000 to 5000 feet. In a meadow near the Naval Peral station they were 
growing in proximity, though not intermixed ; nivalis occurring in a 
boggy part of the field and Graellsii on the drier ground at an elevation 
of about 4000 feet. Descending the southern side of the Sierra towards 
the Escorial, C. Graellsii bespangled like Primroses the moist pastures 
with tens of thousands of its pretty pale yellow flowers. 
I gather from Mr. A. W. Tait’s “Notes on the Narcissi of Portugal,” 
that the same kinds of varieties occur in the Portuguese as in the Spanish 
forms of Corbularia. The following particulars are mainly derived from 
Mr. Tait’s notes and partly from my own observations. 
In several parts of Portugal the form obesa occurs. It is of low 
stature, orange in colour, and departs somewhat in shape from the other 
forms in the corona being inflated or balloon-shaped with a convex instead 
of a concave outline. I found this in the neighbourhood of Cintra in 
1871. It grows at Coimbra intermixed with the ordinary C. Bulbocodium, 
and on the Berlengas Islands off the coast of Portugal all the Corbularias 
are of the obesa type. 
Mr. Tait’s enumeration of the Portuguese Corbularias is as follows : 
—No. 1. With short-stemmed rich orange flowers produced in February 
and March, found in the neighbourhood of Oporto within 100 feet of the 
sea level. 
No. 2. With a much longer scape and larger flower than No. 1, and 
an exceptionally large bulb, from hot marshes near the sea at Ovar 
twenty miles south of Oporto, flowering in March and April. 
No. 3. Somewhat similar to No. 2, but of the obesa type from 
Cantanhede, forty miles south of Oporto, flowering about the 18th of 
April, at an elevation of 30 feet above the sea level. 
No. 4. Corbularia nivalis, the smallest known form was found 
abundantly by Mr. T'ait, at elevations ranging from 1000 feet to 4600 
feet on the hills near Povoa de Lanhozo, and on the Gerez mountains, 
flowering from the beginning of March to the middle of May, according 
to elevation, but much paler in colour, verging to white, than the form 
I found on the Spanish Sierra de Guadarrama. 
No. 5. A double variety of a form resembling No. 1, found at Ovar, 
flowering on the 17th of April. 
No. 6. One of Mr. Tait’s most interesting discoveries is a supposed 
hybrid between Corbularia nivalis and Narcissus triandrus, flowering 
from the end of April to the middle of May, at an elevation of about 
3500 feet on the Gerez mountains. The corona resembled that of 
Corbularia nivalis, but the segments were broader and reflexed, like 
those of Narcissus triandrus. The four specimens obtained in the years 
1885 and 1886 were growing intermixed with the supposed parents. 
This is, I believe, the only known hybrici Cc :’"' lo ria. 
Now crossing to North Africa. Two west European forms occur on 
the Barbary coast opposite the narrow Straits of Gibraltar—viz., the 
typical C. Bulbocodium, and the inflated form C. obesa in the neighbour¬ 
hood of Tangier, but how far these extend east in the direction of Algiers 
has not been ascertained. In the province of Oran, as at Beniza, nca : 
Sidi-bel-Abb6s, at Saida, and Djebil Santo and other localities, the nearly 
white Corbularia monophylla takes their place, and there is no record of 
