6 FLORA HYEMALIS 



out regard to its descriptive suitability that this fine 

 iris is now known to science as /. unguicularis, instead 

 of as formerly /. stylosa, a title much more appropriate 

 inasmuch as it draws attention to the singular arrange- 

 ment of the styles, 'which,' says Mr. W. R. Dykes, 

 'distinguishes it from all others of the genus.' The 

 way to grow this charming plant is to plant it in poor 

 sandy soil at the foot of a sunny wall and leave it alone. 

 The snowdrop (I speak only of the common Galan- 

 thus nivalis, holding other species and varieties in 

 light esteem) is a queerly resolute little being, flowering 

 at its own time, and no other. Unlike almost every 

 other bulbous plant, it refuses to be forced into bloom. 

 True, if the bulbs arc potted up so that the soil may 

 not be frozen hard, they will flower a week or a 

 fortnight earlier than their kindred outside, if these 

 are prevented by hard frost from pushing through the 

 ground ; but they make no response to artificial heat 

 hate it, in fact. They are children of the mist and the 

 rain, multiplying exceedingly where clouds stoop low 

 and weep often over a cool soil, but dwindling and 

 dying out in the Isles of Scilly, whence so many 

 hundredweight of Narcissus and other blossoms are 

 consigned to Covent Garden in winter. Unlike the 

 great majority of flowering herbs, the snowdrop manages 

 to dispense with the offices of insects in fertilising the 

 seeds which it ripens in profusion. Tennyson noted 

 this, as he did many other byways of Nature : 



' The ground-flame of the crocus breaks the mould, 

 Fair Spring slides hither o'er the southern sea ; 

 Wavers on her thin stem the snowdrop cold, 

 That trembles not to kisses of the bee.' 



