Snowdrops 



with the exception of one fine specimen, with which he sent 

 me home rejoicing. Both our gardens have benefited 

 (so far, of course) by this replanting. He tells me his 

 have been much finer ever since, and mine was re- 

 planted and spread out a little this February. It has a 

 solid, waxy white flower of great beauty, not so dainty 

 as the nivalis form, and of rather a colder or greener 

 white, but is a noble and early white Snowdrop. 



Yellow Snowdrops sound abominable, and look some- 

 what sickly when the blossoms are young, for the green 

 of the ovary and inner segments is replaced by a rather 

 straw-coloured yellow ; but on a sunny day a well- 

 expanded bloom, showing the yellow glow that the mark- 

 ings lend to the inside of the flower, is not to be 

 despised, and makes an interesting change from the 

 green and white garb of the rest of the family. The 

 best known is lutescens, a form of nivalis, but a larger 

 and more robust form is called flavescens. Both were 

 found in gardens in Northumberland, the first by Mr. 

 Sanders and the other by Mr. W. B. Boyd, who has 

 a better collection of Snowdrops and knows more about 

 them than anyone else. To his generosity I am in- 

 debted for roots of the lovely double-yellow one which 

 was found in a garden near Crewe, a loosely-formed, 

 graceful double, with the usual markings of the inner 

 segments of a good bright yellow, and a very charming 

 thing when looked full in the face. 



It seems to revert occasionally to its ancestral green 

 markings, and I was rather dismayed to see so much 

 green where I looked for yellow this season, but Mr. 

 53 



