THE SNOWDROP. 



Galon thus nivalis. 



,5vT will appear to the casual reader 

 that the snowdrop is regarded, 

 in the light of its name, as " a 

 drop of snow." The philologists 

 often remind us that " obvious " 

 derivations are always wrong. 

 We may doubt if the sweeping 

 declaration is a good one ; but 

 the present case justifies it so 

 far, because the snowdrop is 

 not a drop of snow. The reader 

 may have seen in the jewellers' 

 shops and in the ears of some 

 fair lady imitations of fuchsia 

 flowers in precious stones, and 

 called "fuchsia-drops." The 

 word before us is an exact 

 parallel thereto. These flowers 

 are likened to eardrops, and they are called " white flower- 

 drops," and that is the proper interpretation of snowdrops. 

 The name is from the German schneetropfen ; it implies 

 that the flower affords a type of a class of personal adorn- 

 ments, and to copy it in jewellery would be in perfect taste, 

 other matters having concurrent consideration. The Germans 



