The scent of the flowers is deleterious, if they are present in any quantity in a closed room, producing in some persons headache and even vomiting. The bulb is used in homoeopathy for the preparation of a tincture. The ease with which most species of Narcissus can be grown in this country is remarkable, since, being mostly natives of Southern Europe and Northern Africa, they have to adapt themselves to very different conditions of soil and climate. No genus of flowering plants is more readily cultivated and less liable to disease, and the presence in its leaves and roots of innumerable bundles of needle-shaped crystals of calcium oxalate, termed raphides, protect it from injury of browsing and gnawing animals, rendering the plants indigestible and possibly poisonous to cattle and smaller animals. The Crocus and Lily are not thus equipped for defence against browsing animals.
Rabbits often fall prey to it.
The only insect enemy from which the Narcissus seems to suffer is the fly Merodon equestris , the grub of which lays an egg in or near the bulb, which then forms the food of the larva. This pest causes serious damage in Holland and the south of England.