554 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
May 1, 1886. 
difference. It has been boldly declared that this green 
colour is a monstrosity, indicative of a return of the 
flower to the status of a leaf, but wrn will defer the 
serious consideration of that proposal until we see the 
flower take the form of the leaf in addition to a touch 
of colour, which, from the florists’ point of view, is one 
of its distinguishing beauties. It would be more 
reasonable, perhaps, to regard the green colour as a 
remainder of the original colour of the flower, for, 
according to the doctrine that has found general 
acceptance, the flower should be first green and then 
yellow, with a potentiality of changing to red, and 
ultimately to blue. 
Considering Professor Kerner’s proposal in connection 
with these facts, it may not be irreverent to say that it 
leads us nowhere. We are to derive two groups of 
plants that differ by larger degrees than many that are 
recognised as distinct species, from a parent plant that 
is a reputed hybrid, and that possesses only a few of 
the characters required. We are assured that the 
purple and marone colours that are so prominent in the 
edged Auriculas cannot be derived from a species known 
as affording only shades of yellow. Those who make 
the declaration evidently forget the wide range of 
colouring of the common Primrose, wherein we have 
almost every colour except true blue. Linnteus grouped 
Primroses, Oxlips, and Polyanthuses as forms of one 
species ; and that view, though for long repudiated, is 
now generally accepted, and the point is especially 
insisted on by Befitham in his Handbook of the British 
Flora. Between yellow and blue there may be some¬ 
what of a gulf fixed, especially in the variations of a 
species but from yellow to shades of red and purple is 
a transition far from uncommon. We have examples 
not only in the Primrose, but also in the Chrysan¬ 
themum, Hyacinth, Tulip, Pansy, Carnation, Holly¬ 
hock, and Antirrhinum. If you wander about in search 
of a source of the red and purple tones in show 
Auriculas, you will never find means to account for the 
brilliant violet-blue body colour of the variety known 
as Colonel Champneys, while others may be found that 
are apparently equally far removed from the possibilities 
of the botanical colourist. The truth appears to be 
that the colours we cannot by direct descent account 
for are in reality self-evolved, and belong to the 
catfegory of changes that accompany and follow cul¬ 
tivation. In other words, these colours, with other 
characters that might, with equal reason, perplex us, 
are, in a certain sense, laid on by the hand of the 
cultivator. It is the fear of the botanist, who cannot 
recognise any merit in his brother the florist, that 
prompts him to find in this or that flower that the 
hand of man has left untouched, the sources of 
properties that the florist has developed by long con¬ 
tinued cultivation in view of an ideal model, towards 
the realization of which he is ever striving, but never 
attaining, though happy in the endeavour, and justly 
though quietly proud of what so far has been actually 
accomplished. To obtain the two great classes of 
Auriculas from Primula pubescens is a greater ex¬ 
travagance on the part of Professor Kerner than any 
florist has ventured on as yet; but the florists have 
discovered long since that seeds derived from show 
flowers do not produce alpine varieties ; and, on the 
other hand, it is all in vain to hope for edged varieties 
from the seeds of the alpine section. The general 
acceptance by the botanists of the proposal of Professor 
Kerner shows how much they need in their researches 
the aid of men who have acquired experience in the 
raising of new varieties of garden flowers, and in the 
management of garden plants generally. 
Parkinson, two hundred and fifty years ago, had a 
green flower with a purple edge. That must have been 
in existence long anterior to the writing of the 
Paradisus. It is not extravagant to entertain the 
supposition that it had been in- existence hundreds or 
thousands of years before. In the same collection 
were striped flowers, and these appear to have increased 
until in the early part of the eighteenth century they 
abounded. Then, again, we hear of an edged flower 
called Honour and Glory in the year 1732, rvhen Sir 
Thomas Moore described it. Since then the edged 
flowers have increased in number, and now constitute 
a race that has all the needful characteristics of a 
species. The green has proceeded out-wards to the 
margin and settled there ; the stripes have moved in 
the same direction and formed a ring within the 
margin ; and the farina has accumulated around the 
centre to form what is termed the paste ; while a rich 
tone of yellow marks the centre, and gives accent 
to the green of the primal flower, the result being 
an arrangement of colours in four orderly masses, 
three of them in circles of definite geometrical pro¬ 
portions. 
The Carnation offers a nearly parallel example, for here 
we see the flakes of the flower moving outward to the 
edge to fashion the Picotee. It is like the action of 
centrifugal force, the colours appearing desirous of 
moving off into space. What is termed the thrum 
does not appear to demand special notice in connection 
with the origin of the flower, but I shall not seriously 
interrupt the study of the subject by remarking that 
Charles Darwin found the short styled flowers the most 
productive of seed, and thus the taste of the florist in 
this respect is in strict accord -with the frugal notions 
of nature. The rich yellow of the thrum is another 
feature favourable to the flower, which is as hardy and 
vigorous as any of its kindred, although commonly 
represented by the traducers of the florists as a debili¬ 
tated thing that requires a man and a boy to hold 
it up. 
The Auriculas naturally divide into two groups, the 
Alpines leaning to Primula villosa, the Auriculas to 
Primula Auricula. There does not appear to be any 
necessity for the admixture ol Primulas that has been 
hypothecated for the formation of these flowers. The 
facts of history suggest that in all their more distinctive 
forms, these two sections represent only two species, 
and that each in its essential characters is self-contained 
and self-containing. We have no proof at any time of 
distinct liybridity, but it must be acknowledged as 
a fact, favouring the view of a considerable range 
of parentage, that the allied species breed freely 
together. The Primulas that most often come into 
contact with man are, like him, of a sportive nature. 
The Laced Polyanthus might perplex us with its golden 
edge, and there are many edged Oxlips in the present 
exhibition, and some that display stripes and incipient 
edgings, and that are probably in a condition of 
change corresponding with the Auriculas of Gerarde 
and Parkinson. 
- »->£<-=-- 
TH3 DAFFODIL* 
(Continued from p. 533 .) 
I NEXT speak of the characters and geographical 
distribution of several of the wild forms, and I may first 
remark that our knowledge of wild forms of Pseudo- 
Narcissus is increasing rapidly, and that every year new 
varieties are being added to our list, or the true home 
of some old garden variety is being discovered. N. 
Pseudo-Narcissus, as a species, is confined to Europe, and 
extends from the Atlantic on the west, and the latitude 
possibly of Edinburgh northwards, to about the longi¬ 
tude of Berlin eastwards. It has been reported as 
native of Hungary and other parts of the Austrian 
empire as far east as Transylvania, but Herr Willkomon, 
Prof, of Botany in the University of Prague, has told 
me that he does not believe it to be indigenous in those 
parts. It is unknown in Turkey or Greece. Its head¬ 
quarters may be considered to be the region of the 
Pyrenees, and it is most abundant in Southern France, 
Northern Spain and Portugal, and Northern Italy. 
Whether it extends quite to the south of these latter 
countries is uncertain. It is convenient to adopt, as 
Mr. Baker has done, the five species of Linnaeus as sub¬ 
species or sections under which to classify the known 
wild varieties. These sections are—1, Pseudo-Narcissus; 
2, major ; 3, minor ; 4, bicolor ; 5, moschatus. 
I say I adopt these divisions of names for convenience, 
but I cannot say that they are satisfactory, though I 
have no better to offer. As the number of wild varieties 
found grows upon us, w r e find it more and more difficult 
to adjust them according to these sub-species. All 
arbitrary definitions break down. Whether we take 
colour, or size, or structure, we find from end to end, 
from the most concolourous to the most bicolorous, 
from the smallest to the largest, an unbroken series of 
links, and if we try to make a set of characters to fit 
particular names, they utterly fail when applied in 
practice. The minors, the majors, the Pseudo-Narcissus, 
the bicolors of Portugal, of the Pyrenees, of the Mari¬ 
time Alps, all differ, and have some characters of one 
name, and some of another, and I therefore adopt these 
names, with this proviso, and as having, not only 
no real limitation as sub-species, but no consistent 
*A paper by the Rev. C. Wolley Dod, read at the Horticultural 
Club, April 14th. 
characters reaching beyond the individual variety we 
may accept as their type. 
As for the first, the Daffodil found wild in England 
has generally been adopted as the type of the species, 
and of this section. In Devonshire, where it is most 
abundant, it varies most in size, in substance of flower, 
in deepness of colour of the corona, and in width and 
recurving of its mouth. The corona, however, is seldom 
much recurved in English varieties. A form now 
known as seoticus is found in Ayrshire, taller and 
stouter, and with larger flowers than the type, and 
earlier in flower, and in its recurved corona presenting 
a beautiful example of crenation. It is improbable 
that it is indigenous to Scotland. 
I must next mention that I know three places in 
England, one being in Oxfordshire and two in Dorset¬ 
shire, where typical Pseudo-Narcissus grow mixed up 
with concolorous forms, both white and yellow, pre¬ 
senting similar characters to the type. With them 
grow others resembling the bicolor section. After 
cultivating these forms and examining them, I believe 
that they are due to different varieties of foreign origin, 
planted together by design or accident, the offspring of 
which are hybrid. The largest development of the 
section Pseudo-Narcissus is found in Italy where 
varieties called Telamonius and princeps are found in 
the valleys and lower slopes of the Apennines, the 
former having the most twisted leaf of any Daffodil I 
know, and the latter the longest corona, sometimes 
exceeding 2 ins. in length, or more than two and a 
half times the length of the tube. From the Pyrenees 
themselves, amongst thousands of Daffodils, I have 
never received any of exactly the English type, though 
it may exist there, but the prevailing Pseudo-Narcissus 
of the lower slopes of the Pyrenees, extending west 
almost to the sea level near Biarritz, is an elegant very 
pale early Daffodil, which we have imported under two 
names, pallidus prsecox, and variiformis, the latter 
name very suitable, as it is a very variable Daffodil 
both in shades of colour, form of corona, and relative 
proportions of the parts of the flower. It carries its 
flowers at nearly every angle to the horizon, and the 
leaves are distinct in appearance, being hardly at all 
glaucous. It seems to have been unknown to Haworth, 
who, in his twenty-nine species of Trumpet or Ajax 
Daffodil, does not even enumerate any into which it 
could possibly be made to fit. This Daffodil has 
scarcely any character which is not inconstant and 
variable. 
The forms included under the second section, major, 
are mostly concolorous, and of rich yellow. They have 
often been distinguished as Spanish, but at least one, 
the spurius of modern gardens, is probably native in 
Italy, and not yet known to be wild in Spain. The 
Tenby Daffodil, quite naturalized in South Wales, but 
of which the true habitat is unknown, belongs to this 
section. So does that' very fine Daffodil, the maximus 
of gardens, which will probably be found native some¬ 
where either in North Italy or Spain, when the countries 
have been more closely searched in early spring. The 
nearest wild approach to this form I have yet seen was 
exhibited by Mr. Ware last year to the Daffodil 
Committee. He had received it as collected wild near 
Saragossa, after which town it has been named. Two 
or three forms, belonging, I believe, to this section were 
sent to me last summer by Mr. Alfred Tait, who collected 
them wild near Oporto. They are tall elegant flowers, 
with slender and much-twisted perianth divisions, not 
imbricated, and I think are new to cultivation. They 
may develop more when I have grown them longer. 
These double readily when planted in Mr. Tait’s garden, 
and the double form is an ugly monster. Major is 
rather ill defined as a section. 
Of the third section, minor, the assumed type, as 
recognised, I believe, by the Narcissus Committee lias 
only just now been identified in its wild state ; but its 
exact counterpart in all characters except size, N. 
minimus, is abundant on mountains in the North of 
Spain. The variety most common in gardens, now 
called nanus, though I shall presently give reasons for 
thinking that the name is wrong, abounds near Bayonne, 
where the French Botanists call it minor ; but the 
recognised minor, with large lobes, and generally with 
free divisions of perianth, was found in the Maritime 
Alps recently by Mr. Scrase Dickins near Grasse. 
Concolorous and bicolorous forms of it grow there not 
in separate clumps, but mixed up together in the same 
clumps, and I have had this season two or three boxes 
of flowers of it sent to study. 
