342 The Snowdrop. 



From its purity and grace the Snowdrop has ever been 

 associated with the virtues ascribed to the Virgin Mary. As 

 such it was dedicated to her, and on the day of the Purification — 

 Candlemas Day — February 2, old style, the image of the Virgin 

 was taken from the altar and Snowdrops placed upon it. The 

 young maidens walked in procession to the churches on that day, 

 clad in white, and the flowers thus acquired the name of " Fair 

 Maids of February," one which is descriptive of the purity, 

 grace, and charming beauty of the Snowdrop as we know it still. 

 In the old metrical rendering of the Church's Calendar of 

 English flowers we find it said that : — 



" The Snowdrop, in purest white arraie. 

 First rears her hedde on Candlemass daie." 



and it still remains the appropriate flower for the red letter day 

 of the second of February. 



There are few superstitions attached to the Snowdrop, so far 

 as one has been able to discover, the only one appearing to be 

 that it is unlucky to bring a single Snowdrop into a house. This 

 is alleged to be owing to the resemblance of the flower to a 

 shroud. 



Poetry. 



The older poets leave the "Fair Maids of February " un- 

 mentioned in their verses. One cannot but think that this is a 

 witness to the theory that the plant is of comparatively recent 

 introduction to our island. Shakespeare, whose wealth of 

 allusion to plants is remarkably great, makes no mention of it, 

 and when the great Bard of Avon, who was such an observer of 

 such things, says nothing about it, we must expect to see little 

 mention of the Snowdrop for some time after his day. Even 

 in more recent times it was largely left to the minor poets to 

 portray the flower in those words which poesy alone can use with 

 such skill. There are now, however, many references to the 

 Snowdrop by the poets, and one can only touch upon a few of 

 these, as illustrations of the more aesthetic side of our subject, 

 ere we enter upon the more abstruse one of its botanical charac- 

 ters. These are selected more from a desire to give a repre- 

 sentative character to the quotations than with a view to 

 discriminate among them from a literary point of view. None 

 of the poets have touched more aptly upon the characteristic 

 thoughts of the Snowdrop than Tennyson, when he tells of his 



