Lesson CLI

Daffodils, Jonquils and Narcissus

Leading thought—The daffodil, jonquil and narcissus are very closely related, and quite similar. They all come from bulbs which should be planted in September; but after the first planting, they will flower on year after year, bringing much brightness to the gardens in the early spring.

Method—The flowers brought to school may be studied for form, and there should be a special study of the way the flower develops its seed, and how it is propagated by bulbs. The work should lead directly to an interest in the cultivation of the plants. In seedsmen’s catalogues or other books, the children will find methods of planting and cultivating these flowers in cities. Daffodils are especially adapted for both window gardens and school gardens.

Observations—1. Note the shape of the flower. Has it any sepals? What do we call the flowers that have their sepals colored like petals, thus forming a part of the beauty of the flower? Can you see any difference in color, position and texture between the petals and sepals?

2. How do the petal-like parts of these flowers look? How many of them are there? Do they make the most showy part of the flower?

3. What does the central part of the flower look like? Why is it called the corona, or crown? Is it a part of the tube which joins the flower to the stem? Do the petals and sepals peel off this tube? Peel them off one flower, and see that the tube is shaped like a trumpet.

4. Look down into the crown of the flower and tell what you see. Can you see where the insect’s tongue must go to reach the nectar?

5. Cut open a trumpet lengthwise to find where the nectar is. How far is it from the mouth of the tube? How long would the insect’s tongue have to be to reach it? What insects have tongues as long as this?

6. In order to reach the nectar how would an insect become dusted with pollen? Are the stamens loose in the flower-tube? Is the pistil longer than the stamens? How many parts to the stigma? Can you see how the flowers are arranged so that insects can carry pollen from flower to flower?

7. What is the green swelling in the stem at the base of the trumpet? Is it connected with the style? Cut it across and describe what you see. How do the young seeds look and how are they arranged?

8. Where the flower stem joins the stalk, what do you see? What is this dry spathe there for? Are there one or more flower stems coming from this spathe?

9. Describe the flower stalk? Are the leaves wide or narrow? Are they as long as the flower stalk, are they flat, or are they grooved to fit around the flower stalk?

10. What are the differences between daffodils, jonquils and poet’s narcissus? When should the bulbs for these flowers be planted? Will there be more bulbs formed around the one you plant? Will the same bulb ever send up flowers and leaves again? How do the bulbs divide to make new bulbs?

11. How should the bed for the bulbs be prepared? How near together should the bulbs be planted? How deep in the earth? How protect them in the North during the winter?

12. Why should you not cut the leaves off after the flowers have died? Why should you not let the seeds ripen? When should the flowers be cut for bouquets? Who was Narcissus, and why should these early spring flowers be named after him?

Supplementary reading—Green Things Growing, Mulock; The Daffodils, Wordsworth; The Story of Narcissus, Child’s Study of the Classics; Mary’s Garden, Duncan, Chapters XXVI and XXVII.

“I emphatically deny the common notion that the farm boy’s life is drudgery. Much of the work is laborious, and this it shares with all work that is productive; for the easier the job the less it is worth doing. But every piece of farm work is also an attempt to solve a problem, and therefore it should have its intellectual interest; and the problems are as many as the hours of the day and as varied as the face of nature. It needs but the informing of the mind and the quickening of the imagination to raise any constructive work above the level of drudgery. It is not mere dull work to follow the plow—I have followed it day after day—if one is conscious of all the myriad forces that are set at work by the breaking of the furrow; and there is always the landscape, the free fields, the clean soil, the rain, the promise of the crops. Of all men’s labor, the farmer’s is the most creative. I cannot help wondering why it is that men will eagerly seek work in the grease and grime of a noisy factory, but will recoil at what they call the dirty work of the farm. So much are we yet bound by tradition!” —L. H. Bailey.