I T WAS LONG, LONG AGO that “Queen Daffidowndilly” first came to town. However far back we may delve into 
old horticultural literature we find the daffodil blowing in gardens and filling them with radiant light. Many 
hundreds of years before the Christian era that great gardener, Theophrastus of Eresus, grew these flowers from 
seed, and that the small-cupped and cluster flowered sorts were grown by the Egyptians before history began to be 
recorded we know from the fact that wreaths of them have been found in the ancient tombs. Two thousand years 
ago the Greek and Roman poets wove them into their songs, and the poets of all the ages since have continued to 
make use of them. All mankind delights in these lovely flowers of the spring—they are the most important and 
most beloved flowers of the young season, as they seem to typify all that our winter-jaded senses crave—rejuvenes¬ 
cence, freshness, a new start. They seem to have been in ancient times among the few flowers suffered in gardens 
for the sake of their beauty alone, for their medicinal virtues were few if any, even in that far day when practically 
every plant was credited a cure. It was for something more spiritual that they were valued. More than fifteen hun¬ 
dred years ago Mohammed wrote: “He that hath two cakes of bread let him sell one and buy flowers of the nar¬ 
cissus, for bread is but food for the body, and narcissus is food for the soul.” 
FEW VARIETIES KNOWN IN 16 TH CENTURY 
William Turner, the father of British botany, who lived in the troubled days of the early sixteenth century, was 
the first to describe the daffodil and its kind at length in the English tongue. He enumerated all the kinds then 
known—and they were but twenty-four. Parkinson, noted gardener of his time and apothecary to James the first, 
in his great “Paradisus in Sole Paradisus Terrestus,” written less than a hundred years later than Turner’s work, 
describes nearly a hundred species and their varieties. By the time John Rea wrote his “Flora” in 1665, their 
numbers had so increased that he made no attempt to do ought but describe the best of each type. 
TREASURED BY FLOWER LOVERS 
Then came the period when a purely artificial style of gardening held the public fancy—when colored sand and 
pebbles took the place of flowers in the knotted beds, or during that later period when stolid ranks of calceolaria, 
geraniums and dusty-miller were the ideal of artistic expressions. During these periods the popularity of the daf¬ 
fodil suffered partial eclipse. But happily during these seizures of gardening madness hundreds of bulbs found 
haven in the gardens of folk who loved and treasured them from whence they could be brought forth when the 
world once more recovered and was able to appreciate the sweet and comely things. 
INTRODUCTION OF MANY NEW TYPES 
The great day of the daffodil began during the midde of the last century, when Dean Herbert of Manchester, 
England, “in order to find out which varieties he should class as natural species crossed for his own satisfaction a 
trumpet with a poet and produced a flower intermediate between the two.” This was the birth of the incomparabilis. 
From then forward the great daffodil names flared forth from time to time against the horticultural firmament— 
Backhouse, Leeds, Peter Barr, Englehart, Williams, deGraaff, Mrs. Backhouse, van Waveren, Barr & Sons, Guy 
Wilson, the Brodie of Brodie. Great names indeed, and what do we not owe them? New daffodils came dancing 
and fluttering to our gardens from all directions. Every spring added to the lovely throng and they are still an ever- 
increasing company. Exquisite new forms continually make their appearance, enchanting new colorings, better 
textures, new stability and hardiness—types for every situation and use—for the rock garden, the borders, the 
meadow, the streamside, the woodland path, the greenhouse, the show bench, for cutting. 
MODERN DAFFODIL RESULT OF YEARS OF STUDY 
And the season of the narcissus is being extended at both ends. This is indeed a boon. The longer we may have 
them the happier we shall be. 
If you are the proud possessor of a copy of Parkinson’s “Paradisus,” and also of that fine modern work on the 
daffodil, by Albert E. Calvert, it would interest you to compare the illustrations in the two. Only thus is it possible 
to realize the great changes that have taken place in the world of daffodils. 
The daffodils listed in these pages reflect this great advance in daffodil breeding. The varieties listed represent 
the best, irrespective of cost and are the results of years of study and comparison. 
[ 34 ] 
