SNOWDROF. 9 



Drooping harbinger of Flora, 



Simply arc thy blossoms dress'd; 

 Artless, as the gentle virtues 



Mansion'd in the blameless breast. 



In the natural history of plants, none deserve the 

 attention of the curious more than those with bul- 

 bous flowers, particularly such as the Snowdrop, 

 and others that have a viviparous as well as ovipa- 

 rous power of producing their species ; and we are 

 in general less acquainted with the viviparous 

 nature of plants than with their oviparous manner 

 of increasing, although they do not vary more in 

 the latter method of propagation than they do in 

 the former. The phenomena in each case are 

 equally wonderful, and deserving more attention 

 than is in general bestowed on them. We know of 

 no animal either of the earth or of the waters that 

 has a double mode of increasing its species as the 

 Snowdrop has ; of which, whilst its seeds are 

 ripening in the air to multiply its kind after the 

 manner of eggs, the parent bulb is throwing off 

 perfect plants from its side into the earth. 



It is the nature of bulbs in general to die when 

 they have once completely blossomed and produced 

 seed ; but this does not appear to be exactly the 

 case in respect to the Snowdrop, which, like the 

 bulb of the Hyacinth, seems to have the power of 

 forming a new germ in a different coat of the same 

 bulb. In the month of August, 182-1, we took from 



