Daffodils VS Narcissus

I'm really upset at those garden writers that write about narcissus, I mean daffodils. According to the Royal Horticulture Society and the American Daffodil Society, daffodil is English for narcissus, and is not slang, with narcissus being the botanical or Latin name. The latest little pundit that got my "dander" up was this passage, "I love narcissus, especially Narcissus Hawera, Narcissus Fragrant Rose, Narcissus Pseudonarcissus which looks like a small Narcissus King Alfred, and Narcissus Calcicola." Can you beat that, garden hybridized 'Hawera', 'Fragrant Rose', and 'King Alfred' gleefully called narcissus? I can see N. calcicola, and N. pseudonaricssus called Narcissus, because that's their names, and they are just that, specus narcissus which are all called by their botanical names, but they are still daffodils. Garden hybridized daffodils are not usually referred to as Narcissus, just daffodil by their registered name.

Last of all, a chain store from around the country and my local neighborhood carries packages of bulbs labeled "Daffodils and Narcissus." Further instructions say that the names are "generally" interchangeable. Generally!!!??? How about saying they are the same, all the time!!! How far does this smugness go, anyway? How does a public that spends as much money on education as the United States, fail to learn the basics?

I sure that I'm getting upset at nothing, and upsetting the apple cart again just . . well, because. In my mind they may as well have called them Amaryllis instead of narcissus. Amaryllis is another made-up name, other than Amaryllis Belladona, for Hippeastrum. I'll bet those same garden writers call all the Hippeastrums, Amaryllis after the Dutch "slang" name for them, so, why can't they call daffodils, daffodils in English.

Therefore, I feel right at home with the other writers by taking my "small" knowledge and offering strong criticism. The botanical name does not need to be used to insure that all readers know that daffodil is narcissus in Latin, or botanically. I'll admit that some garden plants have to be referred to by the botanical name only and unless you use the botanical name you may be giving the wrong name. For instance, you can't use the common name of "Naked Ladies", and insure that the right plant is being applied as both Amaryllis Belladonna and Lycoris Squamigera are called that same common name. One is from South Africa and the other from the Orient. There is no such problem with the world of daffodils. Daffodils are daffodils.