Snowdrops 



tightly bound round by the sheathing leaf, so that their 

 tips are pressed together to form a sharp point that cleaves 

 the ground and makes way for the fragile flower, in much 

 the same way that you put your two hands together and 

 hold them in front of your head when diving into the water. 

 The point of the uprising Snowdrop is strengthened for 

 pushing aside stones and hard substances by a thickening 

 of the tip of each leaf into a tough white cushion, a 

 plan also followed by the leaves of Daffodils, Hyacinths, 

 and many other bulbous plants, but I think only in 

 Snowdrops do these white or cream-coloured tips persist 

 so noticeably in the full-grown leaf. 



Forbes-Watson has rhapsodised very beautifully about 

 the artistic value of these dots, but I think their mechanical 

 service to the plant is their raison d'etre and perhaps 

 more admirable side. 



There is much pleasure to be derived from watching 

 the thrusting through of one's plants in the dull, wintry 

 days. I love to see a great cracking and upheaval of the 

 soil as forerunner to the appearance of the blunt, white 

 nose of a really strong Eremurus Elwesianus, and would far 

 rather see this vegetable mimicry of an enlarged poached 

 egg in the border than any Venus rising from the sea. If 

 the white, sheathing leaves appear in this knob-like form 

 you know there is a good strong spike below, and that 

 forking over in the autumnal cleaning up has not injured 

 the shoot ; but if a point of green leaves first appears it 

 is too often presage of a flowerless crown. The arch 

 method employed by many dicotyledons is worth contrast- 

 ing with the plan of spearing through adopted by most 

 43 



