The Poetry of the Daffodil.

"THE

HE Narcissus leads a charmed life, and ought to be the happiest of flowers. Its classical name associates it with one of the best of the old world legends, and its mythical origin has been told in elegant verse by one of the brightest of the old world poets. Its more homely name of Daffodil takes us into the very heart of English rural poetry, and suggests too the realities of English scenery in the pleasant days when the new-come spring is sprinkling gold and silver everywhere. If we begin with Ovid, we cannot finish with Herrick or even Wordsworth, for Tennyson alludes to the 'shining daffodil' twice in 'Maud,' and he therein sings of 'a daffodil sky,' and in 'The Princess' presents a lady

"'in a college gown

That clad her like an April daffodilly.'

Shakespeare makes Cleopatra think of the beauty of Narcissus when she storms at the messenger who brings news of the marriage of Antony to Octavia. In her terrific tempest she says:

"'Hadst thou Narcissus in thy face
Thou wouldst appear most ugly.'

And the song of the rascal Autolycus in the 'Winter's Tale' was originally written for a better man :

"When daffodils begin to peer

With, heigh! the doxy over the dale-
Why, then comes in the sweet o' the year;
For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale.'”

So far writes our friend, Mr. Hibberd, who is one of our most earnest cultivators of these flowers, and one who has done much in other ways conducive to their present popularity. Another well-known amateur, the Rev. Canon Ellacombe, tells us that "A small volume might be filled with the many poetical descriptions of this 'delectable and sweet-swelling flower,' but there are two especially which are almost classical, and which can never be omitted, and which will bear repetition, however well we know them. There are Herrick's well-known lines :

"And there are Keats' well-known and beautiful lines which bring down the praises of the Daffodil to our own day. He says:

"'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever,

Its loveliness increases, it will never
Pass into nothingness.

In spite of all

Some shape of beauty moves away the pale
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,

Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are Daffodils
With the green world they live in.'

"Shakespeare's oft quoted allusion to the

"Daffodils

That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty.'

(WINTER'S TALE, Act iv., Sc. 3)

is photographic in its truth to nature, and later authors make more direct mention of that 'braverie' which is one of the characteristic features of the 'nodding Daffodil.'

"Beautiful as is a single blossom as seen near the eye, these flowers most impress one when seen in masses; a sea of Daffodils is a sight never to be forgotten. Wordsworth has for ever fixed their beauty in masses for us in his 'Ode to Daffodils,' without which our garland of poesy would be most incomplete.

"I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host of golden Daffodils ;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

'Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay :
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company;

I gazed-and gazed-but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought

'For oft when on my couch I lie,

In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude,
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the Daffodils.'"

Herrick's lament that the Daffodil blossoms fade too soon away has been questioned by more than one author, but that his observation is but too true is a fact well known to all who grow the loveliest of all the new varieties of Daffodil, of which some are strangely pale, some double-ruffled, and Narcissi, surely the most fragile flower ever grown, that seem fainting away, evaporating into air, as you look at them. Is it moral, by the way, to make so sweet a flower as our English Daffodil play these pranks? In humbling the tulip and bringing it down from its gaudy pride to mere dingy rags and strips, there is something that is not altogether displeasing. And in the attenuation of the Narcissus to such die-away languor there is a becoming consonance with myth; but the Daffodil is already so beautiful and so humble, albeit so self-respectful, that one feels half-inclined to resent alteration either in form or colour.

I STAND, as once I stood of old
Upon a meadow's green and gold,
This sunny April day;

The little Daisies kiss my feet,

The blackbird's call is clear and sweet,
And care is far away.

A solemn peace lies on my heart,
So lately wont to throb and smart
And chafe at human ills;

I lift my face to feel the breeze

That wanders through the budding trees
And shakes the Daffodils.

DAFFODILS.

How sweet they show to weary eyes,
These hardy yellow blooms that rise
On slender fluted stalks!
They need no culture, thought, or care,
But spring with Spring-time free and fair
O'er all our common walks.

On meadow green, by leafy hedge,
In woodland shade. and rushy sedge,

By little lowly rills;

While yet the north wind blows his blasts,
Before the storm and sleet are past,
Laugh out the Daffodils.

They rise this year from last year's grave,
And all their golden tassels wave

As blithely now as then.
So I, who love their beauty so,

Rise up this year from last year's woe,

And gather flowers again.

What though from many a dream I part,
I feel the Spring-time in my heart,
My tired sorrows cease.

I whisper to the yellow flowers,

"This year shall bring me summer hours, And deeper, surer peace."

What though the feet that walked with mine,
Through last year's days of shade and shine,

Among my native hills,

Have wandered from my side, and I
Stand lonely under God's blue sky
Among the Daffodils-

What though the hand which held my own
In love's own clasp, while love's own tone
Grew tender unto pain,

Has left my poor hand thin and cold-
I bring the trusting heart of old
To these bright flowers again.

TO A COUNTRY DAFFODIL.

WITH hanging head and fluted stalk,
A golden herald of the Spring,
Telling how thrushes build and sing
Amongst the laurels, in the walk

Where we have also loved and sung.

Come, Daffodil, and whisper true,
(Here amongst city fog and smoke)
What tidings of our trysting oak,
Where squirrels sport and pigeons coo,

As though the world were ever young.

Tell me how all your brethren fare,

Upstanding in the garden beds; And if the snowdrops' modest heads Look earthwards yet, or high in air,

And if the crocuses are there?

Exeter Flying Post.

We have not by any means culled all, or even one half, the bright blossoms which the poets, old or young, have laid at our feet, but we have said enough here to show how popular the Daffodil has ever been in English song. It is essentially an English flower, full of vigorous grace, and in other ways not at all a bad floral type of what is best and most national in our character.

LIST OF NARCISSUS OR DAFFODILS.

NARCISSUS, THE DAFFODIL.

The Daffodil Conference

Of the Royal Horticultural Society, held 1st April, 1884, Professor Michael Foster in the chair. After an interesting and instructive Address by Mr. Burbidge, Author of "The Narcissus, its Culture and History," the following Resolution, proposed by H. J. Elwes, Esq., and seconded by J. G. Baker, Esq., was adopted

RESOLVED—“That, in the opinion of this Conference, uniformity of nomenclature is most

desirable, and that garden varieties of Narcissi, whether known hybrids or natural seedlings, should be named or numbered in the manner adopted by Florists, and not in the manner adopted by Botanists.”

To carry out the above Resolution, a committee was appointed to revise the names of New Daffodils, which resulted in the substitution of popular names for the Latin ones Mr. Barr had in use. In all the gardening papers of May the result of the Revising Committee will be found, with a new classification by J. G. Baker, Esq. The Conference Catalogue being simply an enumeration of names, it was considered desirable that a Descriptive Supplementary Catalogue should follow, and this was prepared by our Mr. Barr, and appeared in "The Florist and Pomologist," June, July, and August. It is this Descriptive Supplementary Catalogue we have reproduced; adding a few Illustrations, very much reduced from the natural size, to make plain the distinctions between the different groups; this being as necessary in the year 1884 as it was in the year 1629.

J. G. Baker, Esq., in his Monograph ranges the Daffodil in three Divisions, thus—MAGNICORONATI, MEDIICORONATI, and PARVICORONATI—which was wittily interpreted at the Daffodil Conference as Longnose, Short-nose, and Snub-nose.

This arrangement not only assists the student in finding out the names of his Narcissus, but is a great help to the amateur in making a selection for his garden or to plant in the grass. Each division is represented by a perfectly distinct group of flowers.

In preparing the Descriptive Supplementary Daffodil Catalogue, Mr. Barr followed Haworth's Monograph for names, published in 1831, it being the most comprehensive list which had been compiled to that date. It should be especially noted that the List herein published contains all the Daffodils known to Lobel, Clusius, Turner, Gerard, Parkinson, as well as those of Haworth and Herbert, Baker and Burbidge. Thus it will be seen that this List covers a period extending over three centuries, an important fact which the reader must not overlook; in a word, the history of the Narcissus in herein summed up and brought down to date. Some of these, however, have, so far, not been identified with living plants, and are distinguished in the List by an asterisk (*) for the present. It is to be hoped, that through the diligent researches now being made for Daffodils all along the Pyrenees, these may be re-introduced, and that the origin of such hybrids as Sabini, Macleai, Montanus, etc., be accounted for, as on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees where there are some natural hybrids; one of which was figured by Parkinson, 1629; one was collected by the Hon. Mrs. Barton, of Straffan House, County Kildare, a few miles from Luchon, in 1878; three were collected by H. E. Buxton, Esq., in 1881, on Piz Entecade, near Luchon, and all point to the same common origin or cross that produced Sabini and Macleai.

The raisers of the New Daffodils to which the Conference Committee gave names are thus indicated: B., Backhouse; de G., de Graaff; H., Horsfield; L., Leeds; N., Nelson; P., Pickstone; Leich., Leichtlin; R., Rawson. When no raiser's name is given, the variety was either introduced to our gardens as a natural plant, or raised at some remote period, and, therefore, the Latin name remains, the plant having been botanically described.

In justice to the late Mr. William Backhouse, of Weardale, and the late Mr. Edward Leeds, of Longford Bridge, the raisers of nearly all the New Daffodils, it is well to explain that the names given to certain families of hybrid Daffodils—as Nelson's, Hume's, Barr's, and Burbidge's—are merely complimentary to these gentlemen for the conspicuous part they have taken in popularizing the Daffodil.