24 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



native countries, such as France and Germany. Its 

 German names may be translated as snowflake, Feb- 

 ruary flower, naked maiden, snow-violet, and snow- 

 drop ; and its French names as the white bell, the bell 

 of the snows, the bell of winter, and the snow-piercer. 

 The pretty Latin name Galanthus — i.e. milk-flower — 

 was invented by Linnaeus to distinguish it from Leuco- 

 jum, which he restricted to the snowflake. I think 

 it would have been better if he had reversed the 

 names, calling the snowflake Galanthus and the snow- 

 drop Leucojum. For I have no doubt that the AevKoibv 

 of Theophrastus is our snowdrop; he describes it as 

 bulbous and the first flower of the year, and some- 

 times even flowering in Avinter, and coming almost at 

 the same time as, but generally a little before, the 

 dog's-tooth violet, and always before the narcissus, 

 the lily, and the bulbocodium, and much used for 

 garlands. This applies better to the snowdrop than 

 to any other flower, and the snowdrop is a Greek 

 flower, while the snowflake is not. It is also men- 

 tioned in two epigrams in the Anthologia Palatina, 

 and the lines are so pretty that they are well worth 

 transcribing : — 



ijSrj \evK6iov 9d\\ei, ^dXXet 5^ <pi\ofx^pos 

 vapKiacros, ddWei d' ovpeffi^oira Kplva. — v. 144. 



