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September  10,  1903.  JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GAP^DENER 
Luck  Lily”  or  “Joss  Flower,”  which  is  a  variety  of  the  Bunch- 
flowered  Daffodil  section. 
We  have  no  record  what  prices  were  paid  in  Parkinson’s  day 
for  Daffodils,  but  they  could  not  be  cheap,  seeing  that  French¬ 
men  made  a  business  trip  annually  to  sell  Daffodils  in  London, 
and  some  of  these  were  collected  on  the  Hautes  Pyrenees.  The 
beautiful  small  white  trumpet  Daffodil,  Moschatus,  grows  on  the 
spur.s  of  Mount  Perdu,  a  place  difficult  of  access.  On  one  of 
my  Daffodil  hunts  I  went  to  the  place  with  six  Spaniards  and  a 
Pyrenean  guide,  sleeping  under  the  rocks  at  night  and  travel¬ 
ling  and  collecting  by  day,  till  our  commissariat  ran  short,  and 
we  had  to  make  a  precipitate  retreat.  On  our  return  journey 
wo  broke  into  a  small  cheese  factory  in  the  Val  Dcrrass,  and 
helped  ourselves  to  the  whey,  leaving  money  to  cover  our  con¬ 
sumption.  On  our  outward  journey  we  had  helped  ourselves  to 
the  whey,  and  the  owner  knew  we  must  return  in  the  same 
direction,  so  locked  up  his  place  to  keep  us  honest. 
Daffodil  Experts. 
In  the  first  quarter  of  last  century  there  arose  an  active 
band  of  semi-botanical  amateurs,  some  of  whose'  names  are  worthy 
of  remembrance.  Salisbury,  a  clever  botanist,  had  a  fine  assort¬ 
ment  of  Daffodils,  which  he  grew  at  St.  John’s  Wood,  London. 
Sweet,  wdio  gave  us  a  botanical  dictionary  and  an  illustrated 
work  in  seven  volumes,  now  much  sought  after  for  libraries,  viz., 
“  Sweet’s  British  FloAver  Garden.”  Ellecomb,  a  missionary  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Leicester  Square;  Anderson,  superinten¬ 
dent  of  the  Physic  Gardens,  Chelsea,  where  a  complete  collection 
of  Daffodils  was  grown,  and  thither  the  experts  met  over  their 
favourite  flowers. 
We  can  readily  imagine  the  many  discussions  on  the  different 
.species,  and  the  best  modes  of  culture.  These  meetings  may  be 
accepted  as  the  first  of  the  modern  conferences  on  Daffodils,  and 
I  can  imagine  that  many  a  spear  was  broken  between  Salisbury 
and  Haworth,  two  tough  antagonists.  Haworth  at  the  time  was 
preparing  a  monograph  of  the  family,  and,  like  Parkinson, 
putting  the  nomenclature  of  the  Daffodil  in  order.  The  mono¬ 
graph  is  quite  a  little  pamphlet,  showing  that  the  herba'riums  of 
Europe  had  been  ransacked  and  eve^ry  illustrated  book  consulted. 
The  work  is  now  rare,  but  if  “  Sweet’s  British  Flower  Garden  ”  is 
in  your  public  library  you  will  find  the  monograph  bound  up 
with  one  of  the  volumes.  I  possess  the  last  revision  made  the 
year  preceding  Haworth’s  death.  I  .should  mention  Hawmrth 
was  a  prolific  writer  on  many  natural  history  subjects,  and  I 
think  he  gave  a  monograiDli  of  the  Mesembryanthemums  of  Cape 
Colony. 
Dean  Herbert,  of  Manchester,  about  this  time  was  w’orking 
on  his  Amaryllidese,  and  when  dealing  with  the  Daffodil  family 
and  analysing  what  were  supposed  by  all  his  predeces.sors  to  be 
species,  felt  sure  some  of  them  were  hybrids.  To  satisfy  himself 
on  this  point,  he  crossed  the  trumpet  w’ith  poeticus  Daffodil,  and 
the  seedling  was  truly  intermediate.  The  problem  solved,  he  had 
his  flowers  painted,  and  the  water-coloured  painting  is  bound 
up  witli  Herbert’s  monograph  of  the  Crocuses.  Visitors  to 
London  will  be  shown  this  on  calling  at  the  Lindley  Library  at 
the  offices  of  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society,  Victoria  Street, 
Westminster,  or  at  Barr  and  Sons’  warehouse.  King  Street, 
Covent  Garden,  these  being  the  only  two  copies  I  know’  of. 
Dean  Herbert  made  his  discovery  knowm  early  in  the  forties, 
and  I  have  no  doubt  it  created  great  interest,  and  that  many 
took  up  the  study,  but  only  two  men  carried  their  work  to  the 
goal,  viz.,  Mr.  William  Backhouse,  banker,  Darlington,  and  Mr. 
Edward  Leeds,  stockbroker,  Alanchester.  To  these  tw’o  seedling 
collections  the  w’orld  is  indebted  for  the  pleasure  in  spring  of 
cultivating  a  family  of  the  most  charming  flow’ers,  and  enjoying 
them  in  their  drawing  rooms,  since  1884. 
The  work  of  these  two  men  commenced  in  the  forties  and 
ended  in  the  sixties,  representing  some  twenty-five  years’  enjoy¬ 
ment  unshared  by  the  outside'  world.  At  that  time  the  Daffodil 
was  despised,  and  few'  people  would  tolerate  it  in  their  garden. 
I  took  up  the  study  of  the  Daffodil  early  in  the  sixties,  working 
on  the  older  forms  known  to  Parkinson.  In  the  seventies  I  became 
the  possessor  of  Leeds’  seedlings,  and  then  Backhouse’s  seedlings, 
and  during  the  following  ten  years  I  found  my  hands  each  spring 
very  full,  and  my  leisure  time  fully  occupied  in  cleaning,  classify¬ 
ing,  and  naming  the  Daffodils  raised  by  the  men  named,  both  of 
whom  had  joined  the  majority  long  before  the  public  realised 
how  much  beauty  there  was  in  the  flow'ers  of  their  handiwork, 
and  how  exceedingly  valuable  these  flowers  were  in  filling  up  a 
gap  in  our  floral  display  outdoors  and  indoors. 
W’hile  the  Daffodil  is  the  hardiest  of  spring  flowers,  it  also 
lends  itself  to  culture  under  glass  or  in  a  sitting  room  window.  I 
do  not  suppose  that  Oscar  W’^ilde  knew  anything  about  Daffodils, 
but  there  is  no  doubt  in  my  mind  that  the  great  public  are  much 
indebted  to  him  for  the  revolution  in  taste*  caused  by  his  lectures 
on  aesthetic  colours.  He  broke  down  the  prejudice  to  yellow,  the 
artists  follow’ed  him,  and  the  public  followed  the  artists.  About 
this  time  I  had  finished  my  work,  and  the  collection  represented 
about  500  distinct  sorts,  ancient  and  modern. 
Tlie  Royal  Horticultural  Society  held  a  great  Daffodil  Ccn- 
ference  in  the  .'spring  of  1881.  From  that  day  the  fame  of  the 
Daffodil  was  secured,  and  like  magic  spread  over  the  British 
Isles,  extending  to  all  Britain’s  colonies. 
Having  set  the  machinery,  so  to  speak,  agoing,  I  claim  a  right 
to  be  proud  of  the  result  of  my  twenty  years’  labour ;  during 
this  period  it  was  all  outgoing  and  no  incoming.  The  amateur 
is  cnly  one  element,  however;  I  created  a  new  industry.  The 
street  flower  girls  and  hawkers  of  London  do  a  profitable  trade 
.selling  Daffodils  for  at  least  three  months  in  the  spring.  The 
Scilly  Islands  j'early  send  hundreds  of  tons  of  Daffodil  flowers. 
- - 
Mr.  Peter  Birr,  V.M.H. 
Peter  Barr  was  born  at  Govan,  Scotland — then  a  prosperous 
weaving  village  on  the  Clyde' — in  April,  1826,  but  more  to  his 
taste  than  looms  or  their  products  were  the  Tulip  beds  in  big 
father’s  garden,  and  it  was  their  beauty  decided  his  fate.  At  an 
early  age  he  was  employed  in  the  seed  shop  of  Mr.  Jas.  Thyne,  of 
Glasgow,  eventually  taking  full  charge  of  the  seed  department. 
His  next  appointment  was  with  Alessrs.  Daly,  Drysdale,  and  Co., 
Mr.  Peter  Barr. 
seed  merchants,  of  Newry,  County  Down,  Ireland,  when  but 
twenty  years  of  age,  where*  he  went  through  the*  terrible  famine 
years  of  1846-1847,  caused  by  the  general  failure  of  the  Potato 
crop.  From  Newry  he  went  to  Mr.  Richard  Smith’s  nursery  at 
Worcester,  then  only  sixteen  acres  in  extent,  and  a  year  or  two 
afterwards  he  was  appointed  manager  to  Messrs.  Butler  and 
McCulloch,  of  Covent  Garden.  After  some  years  of  experience 
in  the  London  seed  trade,  Mr.  Barr  started  as  a  seedsman  in  the 
autumn  of  1861  under  the  style  and  title  of  Barr  and  Sugden. 
Two  years  later  he  commenced  his  labours  on  bulbs. 
He  has  devoted  much  attention  to  hardy  garden  plants  as  well 
as  seeds,  beginning  with  the  Daffodils  and  Liliums,  and  studying 
also  other  genera,  such  as  the  Scillas,  Hellebores,  Funkias,  while 
more  recently  he  has  paid  much  attention  to  the  beautiful  genus 
Pseonia  in  all  forms  and  variations,  having  travelled  a  good  deal 
in  Spain  to  collect  the  European  species,  some  of  which  were 
known  in  herbariums,  but  unknown  in  cultivation.  Mr.  Barr 
has  donated  a  collection  of  these  European  s^recie-s  to  the  Botani¬ 
cal  Gardens  of  New  York,  Harvard,  Hniversity  of  Pennsylvania, 
Schenley  Park,  Pittsburg,  and  other  American  institutions. 
Mr.  Barr’s  la.st  work  was  on  the  old  florist  Tulip.s  of  historical 
fame.  He  got  together  the  older  collections  of  the  Scotch, 
London,  and  Dutch  to  compare  with  the  more  modern  of  the 
midland  counties  and  Lancashire,  with  the  r.„sult  that  the  modern 
men  carried  the  day  in  form,  chasteness  of  marking,  and  clear¬ 
ness  of  bottom. 
A  few  years  ago  Mr.  Barr  resigned  his  business  to  his  three 
sons  and  went  on  a  tour  abroad.  At  his  home-coming  a  repre¬ 
sentative  of  this  paper  had  a  lengthy  interview  with  the  respected 
veteran  florist,  and  the  notes  taken  on  that  occasion  are  appearing 
in  these  pages,  under  the  title  “The  Daffodil  King  on  Tour.”  so 
that  the  main  lines  of  his  past  six  years  are  before  our  reader.s. 
Mr.  Barr  is  hale  and  hearty,  and  may  long  be  .spared  to  study 
the  various  interests  in  his  mind.  He  is  at  present  in  Scotland. 
The  portrait  of  him  was  taken  in  1896,  when  in  Norwaj*. 
