January 



SELDOM has the snowdrop delayed coming into flower 

 so late as it did in 1918. We have a record The 

 extending over sixteen years showing the Snowdrop 

 date on which the first blossom was gathered. Four 

 times in that period this has been before New Year's 

 Day; in 1910 no flower appeared till 19th January, the 

 latest date recorded. 



The snowdrop is a queer little plant in more respects 

 than one. It chooses the coldest, gloomiest month in 

 the year to array itself in airy finery, which is all 

 thrown off before the majority of flowering things are 

 out of bed, so to speak. It then sinks into the earth's 

 dark bosom to pass therein all the bright summer days 

 and five-sixths of the whole year. Most herbs and 

 shrubs rely on the intrusion of insects to fertilise their 

 seeds ; indeed the unromantic fact seems to be that the 

 sole, or at least the primary, purpose of beauty in 

 blossom is to attract such visitors. Somehow or other 

 the snowdrop manages to do without flying and creeping 

 auxiliaries in this matter, for although botanists have 

 detected that nectar is secreted by the green marks on 

 the corolla, and although seed is produced regularly 

 each year in profusion, insect visitors must be few and 

 A 



