VISITORS peering at Cotehele's spring flowers last week may have seen a rather curious-looking man wandering about the gardens with a state-of-the-art satellite navigation system.

John Smith was not in fact having trouble finding his way about the labyrinthine house and grounds, but plotting the positions of hundreds of rare and ancient species of daffodils.

'The Tamar Valley was a great daffodil growing area until the second world war when all these old varieties, some going back hundreds of years, were pulled up to grow fruit and vegetables.

Often they were just tossed into hedges, where they continued to grow,' said a National Trust spokesperson.

'John Lanyon, the head gardener, is trying to catalogue all these old varieties and the information will go onto a digital map.'