THE CROCUS AND SNOW-DKOP. 199 



in whiteness, and remains uninjured by a season, during the inclemency 

 of which, most vegetable productions lie torpid ; just as if, 



" Nature's breath by some transforming power, 

 " Had changed an icicle into a flower." 



It belongs to that beautiful tribe of plants the amarylHdeiB, or 

 narcissus tribe, of which the daffodil is another example. It only 

 differs from the last mentioned tribe, in having six stamens, with 

 their faces turned inwards towards their pistil, as is generally the 

 case. In the Iridece it will be remembered they were described as 

 being turned outwards from the style, which occurrence is very 

 characteristic of the tribe. The snow-drop is of the Linnaean class 

 Hexandria, having six stamens, and of the order Monogynia, having 

 one pistil. As in the crocus, this plant arises from a bulb, but it is 

 scaly, and consists of a shortened expanded stem, surrounded by 

 fleshy coloured leaves. The leaves are usually sword-shaped with 

 the veins running nearly parallel, from one extremity to the other. 

 This latter circumstance is indicative of this tribe of plants belonging 

 to that grand division called Monocotyledons or» Endogens, of which 

 we shall treat hereafter. 



It is interesting to remark that whilst the external characters of 

 these two plants, the crocus and snow-drop, are so nearly the same, 

 the minute differences which I have mentioned should be indicative 

 of quite opposite properties, this remark applies to the whole of the 

 two tribes. For whilst nearly all of the Irideoe are harmless, and 

 some nutritious, the amaryllidea nearly all possess poisonous pro- 

 perties. The Hottentots are said to dip their arrows in the juice of 

 the bulbs of the hcemanthus in order to render them poisonous ; and 

 the narcotic odour as well as the emetic properties of the narcissus 

 were known to the Greeks and Romans. 

 The Hyacinth in our next. 



J. H. G. 



