4 FLORA HISTORICA. 



us not to have been originally indigenous to the 

 British soil, from its being so rarely found except- 

 ing in spots that are known to have been the site 

 of ancient gardens. It is unnoticed in the works 

 of our oldest herbalists, and no allusions are made 

 to it by our early poets. 



Gerard says, " These plants do grow wilde in, 

 Italie and the places adjacent, notwithstanding our 

 London gardens haue taken possession of them all, 

 many yeeres past." This old author calls it Leu- 

 cohnn Bulbosum prcecox, Timely-flowering Bulbous 

 Violet. In a Dutch work on bulbous flowers, 

 published in 1614, it is called Leucoium Bulbosum 

 Triphyllon ; and it is there mentioned as growing 

 common in Italy, whilst in Holland it was at that 

 time very seldom found, excepting in the gardens 

 of the curious. 



i( In Italia frequens est, hie nisi in hortis curi- 

 osorum minime invenitur." 



The writer of the same work has pictured a 

 second species of Snowdrop, with broader leaves 

 and of a larger size, which is named Leucoium 

 bulbosum Byzantinum jircecox, and which is stated 

 to be odorous. This, we presume, is the viola alba 

 ct viola bulbosa of Theophrastus ; the Lcucojum 

 vernum of modern times, which Mr. Curtis named 

 Snowflakc, to distinguish it from the Snowdrop. 



The name of Galanthus, which is given tc the 



