366 AUTUMN AND WINTER 



superficial appropriateness to the season, but is in harmony 

 with the whole progress of the year's blossoms. The general 

 colour scheme of flowers deepens as the year goes on ; white 

 and pale blue and bright yellow are the prevailing colours in 

 the earlier months, while after midsummer these lighter hues 

 become much scarcer, and are replaced by various shades of 

 purple, and deeper orange yellows. Thus the pure white of 

 the snowdrop's hanging blossom seems the starting-point for 

 the whole floral progress of the year ; and its hidden green 

 is a visible promise of all the verdure to come. The garden 

 snowflake of April and the water snowflake, or Loddon lily, 

 which blooms in May, are both flowers of much the same 

 habit and appearance ; but the snowdrop is far more shy and 

 graceful. The snowflakes are much taller plants, growing to 

 a foot or eighteen inches in height, and therefore needing 

 calmer weather and the protection of taller herbage round 

 them. Snowdrops could only afford to lift their heads so 

 high in the protection of thick brambles and withered 

 herbage ; and in that case they would get little light in the 

 short, dark days when they first thrust from the soil, and their 

 blooming would be long delayed. Sometimes a snowdrop is 

 found flowering as late as the end of March in the midst of 

 dry grass and brambles, through which it has had to thrust 

 its way in order to reach the light. In such an exceptional 

 situation its stem may be eight inches long ; but by the time 

 when it flowers, primroses, anemones, violets, and many other 

 blossoms are blooming abundantly round it, and it is no 

 longer the herald of the year. The two snowflakes are 

 tipped with green on the external sepals, which deprives 

 them of that air of shy promise which is part of the snow- 

 drop's charm. Snowdrops are often found in spots where 

 heaps of moss-grown stones or the slight ridge of a vanished 

 wall indicate the site of an ancient dwelling. This associa- 



