CROCUS AND EARLY SPRING FLOWERS 41 



Somer, no doubt, is another form of "Zomer" 

 (summer), though snowdrops no more then than 

 now bloomed nor yet were planted in summer ; 

 Sottekens remains, to me at least, a mystery. The 

 first snowdrops came from Germany and Hungary, 

 and the later blooming sort from Constantinople. 

 In Parkinson's day there was no talk of them 

 being native to England. They had not been in 

 the country long enough to have increased and 

 naturalised themselves, as they have in some 

 districts now. Undisturbed, in both England and 

 Holland they increase rapidly, by offsets, according 

 to the usual bulb habit ; if they like the situation, 

 often forming clumps twenty or thirty strong, and 

 continuing to grow in land that has long gone out 

 of cultivation. 



In England the flower is not so much admired 

 as it used to be, when it 



Chaste snowdrop, venturous harbinger of Spring, 

 And pensive monitor of fleeting years 



received the tribute of much minor verse. Now 

 we principally remember in connection with it 

 that it does not lend itself well to pot culture, 

 and makes no show as a cut flower ; hence, seeing 

 its inconspicuousness and the usual state of the 

 weather at the time of blooming, it is of little use 



