INDUSTRIES her of the great family of Blanchminster, whose castle was at Enor and prison at La Val, 1 or by the Bendictine monks who had a cell at Tresco, 2 These other flames, The spirits of men contemplative, were all Enliven'd by the warmth, whose kindly force Gives birth to flowers and fruits of holiness. 3 or, at some later period, perchance by some officer of the garrison stationed at St. Mary's, it is now impossible to determine. But there the flowers were, and there they flourished luxuri- antly. The isolation of Scilly had always thrown the inhabitants largely on their own resources. For generations their only marketable com- modity was kelp, which they obtained in large amount by burning the ore- weed which has always been very abundant on the rocky shores of the islands. The kelp industry was ruined by a right of pre-emption which was claimed by the lord proprietor and injudiciously exercised by his steward, and also by the discovery of chemical substitutes for kelp. Various attempts were made to introduce fisheries, but all these proved abortive. The cultivation of early potatoes followed and was attended with success, but it also served to remind the Scillonians of their extremely pre- carious means of subsistence. A hard frost or a sudden gale meant the utter destruction and loss of the crop. In or about the year 1870, Mr. Augustus Smith, lord proprietor of the isles of Scilly, advised some of his tenants to send a con- signment of narcissus flowers to Covent Garden market. The credit of acting upon this advice is shared between Mr. Richard Mumford of Holy Vale and Mr. William Trevellick of Rocky Hill. The first consignment was small and realized only jfi. Thenceforward, however, for a few years, at Tresco Abbey gardens and on a few farms, flowers were cultivated, but with 1 Pat. Roll, 3 Edw. II, May 10.
- This conjecture, which has hitherto been based
solely upon the known habits and tastes of the Benedictine monks, receives some support from the fact that also on the slopes of St. Michael's Mount the variety of the narcissus known as the Scilly White, which grows wild in Scilly, has flourished from time immemorial. Until the reign of Henry IV the monks of St. Michael's Mount and those of Tresco were of the same order the order of St. Benedict. It was Henry V who granted St. Michael's to the abbess and convent of Syon (Cat. of Pat. z Henry VI, p. 205). Assuming therefore a Benedictine origin for the flower, its introduction to Scilly and St. Michael's Mount must have taken place in or before the beginning of the fifteenth century. From recent enquiries which the writer has caused to be instituted at the Jardin des Plantes it would appear that the Scilly White is also found growing wild on Mont St. Michel, the seat of the original foundation of the Benedictine order a further corroboration of the theory that the Benedictines introduced the narcissus into Cornwall.
- Dante, Paradise, xxii, 44.
indifferent success. In 1880 flower culture first became remunerative on a small scale. In 1883 Mr. T. A. Dorrien-Smith, nephew of Mr. Augustus Smith, who had succeeded his uncle as lord proprietor, determined to study closely the cultivation of the narcissus, and for this pur- pose he visited Holland, Belgium, and the Channel Islands. Finding that the flowers were a month earlier in Scilly than in those places, he purchased bulbs largely, for himself and for his tenantry. The export of flowers, from the Scilly Isles alone, rose in 1885 to 65 tons. The amount was 100 tons in 1887, and has continued to increase, with slight fluctuations, the returns for the last few years having been as follows : 4 In 1901 the export amounted to 650 tons. 750 7 J 94 800 I 9S 7 >, On the mainland the cultivation of the nar- cissus for the market was first undertaken by Mr. Andrew Lawrey of Varfell, in the parish of Ludgvan, in the year 1885. Since that date flower farms have been formed in the parishes of St. Burian, Gulval, Lelant, Madron, Mylor, and Paul, but Varfell continues to occupy a leading position both for flowers and vegetables in West Cornwall. On the islands little is done by way of manuring the land for narcissus, the chief thing being the separation, removal, and transplanting of the bulbs every three years to prevent deterior- ation. On the mainland, however, sea-weed and bone meal are extensively used. It is also claimed that the heavier soil of Ludgvan and elsewhere produces more robust plants and better blooms than the sandy soil of the islands. In order to protect the flowers from the fierce equinoctial gales the land is cut up into rectangular strips, and these are surrounded by hedges of veronica, escallonia, and privet. The flower harvest begins on the islands in January, and continues until the end of May. On the mainland it is, roughly speaking, ten days or a fortnight later. This affords employment to great numbers of men, women, and children. The flowers are gathered and tied up in bunches of twelve each, and are then packed in boxes and sent to most of the large towns of the United Kingdom. The price of the flowers varies ; early in the season a dozen bunches will fetch as much as 3*. or 4.5 ., late in the season the price will sometimes be less than one-third of that sum. The narcissus is not cultivated ex- tensively under glass except at Tresco, where a flower crop, followed by tomatoes, has proved very remunerative. The varieties of the nar- cissus which may be considered indigenous to 4 The writer is indebted to the Great Western Railway for these returns. 579
