Snowdrops 



ments, but its chief peculiarity is the very curious pair of 

 leafy spathes that replace the narrow green keels with 

 their membranous connective that are common to all other 

 Snowdrops. In G. Scharlokii, these queer little leaves 

 stand up and spread out over the flower with an expres- 

 sion like that of hares' ears. In some seasons a number of 

 the flowers may have the leafy spathes partially united, 

 even for about half their length, and then after a year 

 or two all may be divided to the base again. Mr. Allen 

 raised some seedlings that showed a slight inheritance 

 of these characters, but they are not improvements : one 

 of them is a double flowered form, and I think quite the 

 ugliest Snowdrop I possess, only having enough sugges- 

 tion of green on the outer segments to make it look dingy. 

 I have also a form known as Ward which has the 

 green-tipped segments without the leafy spathes, and is 

 rather pretty. The greenest of all I have saved to the 

 last, a double green Snowdrop that doesn't hang its head, 

 which sounds what children call " perfectly hijjous," but 

 I assure you it has a quiet beauty and charm of its own. 

 One might not wish for a bouquet of it, or to decorate 

 a dinner-table with nothing else, but when Mr. Boyd 

 kindly sent it to me I greatly enjoyed examining and 

 painting it, and am very proud of possessing so great a 

 rarity. It was found at Ashiesteel near Melrose, in a 

 garden where no Snowdrops but the common G. nivalis 

 are grown, so its peculiarities must be entirely its own 

 invention, a parallel case to that of the small girl charged 

 with biting, scratching, and spitting at her dear kind nurse, 

 who in answer to Mother's explanation that such be- 

 haviour was very bad as being put into her head by the 

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