THE SXOWDROP AND SNOWFLAKE. 147 



perennial and springs from a bulb. The leaves thrown up 

 are few in number, a foot or so in length, and very narrow, 

 much like those of the daffodil. The flowering stem rises 

 above these and from their midst; near its summit is a 

 large sheath-like bract, called a spatha : we see it again in 

 the peculiar form of the wild arum, and from this spatha 

 springs the cluster of blossoms. The snowflake delights 

 especially in rather moist meadow-land. Though not so 

 common as the snowdrop, it is very fairly distributed, 

 though chiefly in the northern and eastern counties of 

 England. Curtis, in his (t Flora Londinensis," published 

 in 1798, gives a meadow by the river-side between Green- 

 wich and Woolwich, and on the shore of the Isle of Dogs, 

 as two metropolitan localities ; but the growth of London 

 must long since have destroyed all chance of finding the 

 plants there. It flowers during May, which, compared 

 with the time of flowering of the snowdrop, may almost 

 be considered summer ; hence the plant is often called 

 the summer snowflake. This somewhat erroneous name is 

 also expressed in its scientific appellation, the Leucojum 

 cestivum, the specific name being a Latin adjective, 

 signifying that which relates to the summer. The generic 

 name is derived from two Greek words, meaning white 

 and a violet. Of the motive that impelled the great 

 botanist Linnaeus to give the plant such a name we can 

 say nothing in explanation. The pure white of the 

 blossoms is an evident fact, but the resemblance, either in 

 form or colour or anything else, in fact to a violet is 

 not by any means so clearly beyond question. 



The name borne by the snowdrop in the botanical 

 lists is the Galantltus nivalis. As the specific name of 

 the snowflake pointed to the blossoming of the plant in 



