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he Gardening World 
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MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“ Primrose, first-born child of Ver, merry springtime’s harbinger.”— Beaumont and Fletcher. 
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he following Coloured 
lateS have appeared 
vlareh 14.— NEW CHINESE PRIMULAS, 
vlarch 21.— A GROUP OF DAVALLIAS. 
darch‘28.— TEA ROSE “ CHAMELEON ” 
f COOMBE CLIFFE GARDENS. 
April 4.— COLEUS THYRSOIDEUS. 
April 11.— PITCHER PLANTS. 
Vpril 18.— CESTRUM SMITHII. 
Back numbers may be obtained from the 
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;2, the PRESENT ISSUE we present a 
^noffirome Plate of JAPANESE PIGMY 
Kte X o^ sha1 ' presenfc a Half -Tone 
'ORTH Hn,? e C r K . GARDEN AT WENT- 
URTH HOUSE, MILL HILL, N.W, 
Views and Reviews. 
The Advance of the Daffodil. 
Whatever the view taken by the general 
public towards the Daffodil, there can be no 
doubt that the specialists are improving 
them all along the leading or popular sec¬ 
tions. It is a penalty -we have to pay when¬ 
ever a flower is specialised, that only the 
specialists themselves are able to follow out 
in detail the minutiae and perfection of the 
flower to which they devote their attention. 
Daffodils, as a rule, have been able to engage 
the public attention for the last two decades 
at least. Their admiration, however, ex¬ 
tends only to Daffodils in a general way. We 
all remember what Wordsworth said about 
Peter Bell, that a “ Primrose by a river’s 
brim, a yellow Primrose Was to him, and 
it was nothing more.” This is no doubt the 
view taken by the public with regard to the 
Daffodil. It is merely a yellow Daffodil. 
There are, however, other colours, such as 
Avhite, lemon, citron, orange, and even green, 
the last-named colour being happily centred 
in a form of Narcissus Leedsii, by some 
termed the Eucharis Daffodil. 
Variations in size and form are also pro¬ 
ceeding apace, and we should like to see 
such an advance in the public taste, that they 
would appreciate all these variations at their 
true value. This, of course, is a matter of 
education, and the public can only get 
educated in this particular flower by being- 
led to cultivate them in their own gardens. 
The specialists, and all those interested in 
Daffodils, can only do their best, and no 
doubt will carry this out to the best of their 
ability to bring their favourite-flower before 
the public at the annual exhibitions in 
the spring. 
At one time the public had a great aver¬ 
sion to yellow, but that has been overcome ; 
and seeing that there are so many other 
beautiful colours, and still increasing in 
number, we hope that the popular taste will 
not flag in the interest of a beautiful spring- 
flower that fills up a blank in the garden, 
during March and April, when flowers are 
still relatively scarce. It is to be hoped also 
that they will enter into the true spirit of the 
cult of this hardy spring flower, and follow 
out its particular lines of beauty in the 
fullest sense of the term. 
The old giants, such as Emperor, Em¬ 
press, and Horsfieldi, are now no longer run¬ 
ning- in the matter.of size, although they are 
still amongst the best for market purposes 
and spring bedding-. Those who were pre¬ 
sent at the annual show of the Midland Daffo¬ 
dil Society on the 16th inst. were able to 
see much larger flowers than those we have 
just named. They included Waverin’s Giant, 
King’s Norton, Boyal and Hodsock’s Pride. 
The above are huge yellow trumpet Daffo¬ 
dils, something i n the way of Emperor, 
though in detail very different, both in form 
and size. 
The new white Daffodils created the 
greatest sensation and enthusiasm amongst 
the connoisseurs and specialists in their cul¬ 
ture. Indeed, the white Daffodils were quite 
a surprise. For all time past, white Daffo¬ 
dils have been with us, but they were very 
small, though pretty, and were represented 
by N. moscbatus, N.m. tortuosus, N. bicolor, 
and others of that sort. Most people still 
remember the sensation caused by the mag¬ 
nificent Daffodil named Madame' de Graaff, 
but though nearly white, it was not decidedly 
so, the trumpet being of a pale lemon when 
first expanded. The delicacy of colour ex¬ 
hibited by that grand variety, however, 
raised hopes in the minds of raisers about 
the potentialities of this new form. 
The new varieties placed before the public 
on the 16th inst. were pure white, and we 
shall give an account of them on another 
occasion. Two of the new white varieties 
were particularly noticeable, but the judges 
were of two minds concerning which was the 
best, although all were agreed that there was 
ample room and welcome for both the new 
comers. One of them named Loveliness is 
characterised by a long, funnel-shaped trum¬ 
pet. The other, named Franoisea, has the 
mouth of the trumpet very much revolute, 
thereby shortening it somewhat, but increas¬ 
ing its beauty in the minds of connoisseurs. 
We have noted that the tendency in all Daffo¬ 
dils, when their constitution is affected by 
