168 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
“ As Flora’s breath, by some transforming power, 
Had changed an icicle into a flower.” 
In the Romish Church the Snowdrop is dedicated to the Purification of the Virgin 
Mary. 
“The flower that first in the sweet garden smiled, 
To virgins sacred.” 
It has also been considered as the emblem of Consolation, speaking as it does of 
the return of spring, and hope, and brighter days, amid the darkness and repose of 
winter. 
“Green hues of hope array us, 
Our snowy bells must ring; 
And low but sweetly chiming, 
The joyful tidings bring ! 
For theirs it is to utter,— 
Awake! behold the spring !” 
Wordsworth has addressed a sonnet to this flower, in which he calls it— 
“ Chaste Snowdrop, venturous harbinger of spring, 
And pensive monitor of fleeting years.” 
The root of the Snowdrop possesses certain nutritious and mucilaginous properties, 
which would render it valuable were it more plentiful. It is probable that it would 
make as good salep as the orchis root. 
EXCLUDED SPECIES. 
NARCISSUS CONSPICUUS. D. Don. 
“Mr. W. M. Chatterley communicated this to the Botanical Society 
of London, localised from ‘Muggeridge’s farm-yard,’ beyond Banstead, 
Surrey.” (Cyb. Brit. vol. ii. p. 446.) 
NARCISSUS MAJOR. Curt. 
Templeogue (Cyb. Hib. p. 294). This is the daffodil commonly 
cultivated. 
NARCISSUS MINOR. Lin. 
“ Thrives on the rocks below the old Castle at Penrice, and no trace 
can be obtained of the time when it was planted.”  Dillwyn’s 
“ Materials for a Fauna and Flora of Swansea,” p. 36, quoted in Cyb. 
Brit. vol. ii. p. 446. 
