42 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



In Wales our plant is the Clychau-r baban. So, 

 at least, we are told by a native of the Principality, 

 but we confess that the word scarcely looks Cymric 

 enough, one conspicuously weak point in it being 

 that from its fairly reasonable supply of vowels we 

 can at least attempt to pronounce it. The signi- 

 ficance in English is " baby's bells." Our English 

 name, the snowdrop, is equally poetic. 1 One of 

 the alternative names is Fair Maids of February. 

 During the whole mediaeval period the Church 

 taught alike by eye and ear, and did not disdain to 

 press even the wayside weeds into her service, and 

 to associate them with the Virgin Mary, the saints 

 and martyrs, and so the snowdrop got its name of 

 Fair Maids of February, 2 since its delicate blossom 

 was often already expanded by the 2nd of February, 

 the Feast of the Purification. It may at first strike 



1 A large class of popular names, in England and abroad, 

 arises from a real or fancied resemblance between the flower 

 and some other object : to this class our snowdrop belongs. 

 Other good descriptive names are the arrowhead and the bee 

 orchis. The bladder campion is so called from its inflated 

 seed-vessels, the ox-tongue from the shape and roughness of 

 its leaves, the mouse-ear from their form and soft hairiness. 

 Hare's-ear, crowfoot, monk's-hood, snake's-head, shepherd's- 

 purse, are only a few of the many examples that might be 

 cited. 



2 The Virgin Mother is commemorated again in such 

 names as Lady's-mantle, Lady's-thistle, Lady's-smock, Lady's- 

 bedstraw ; while in Germany we have the Frauenmantel, the 

 Mariendistal ; in France the Chardon-Marie, the gants de 

 notre Dame, and many others of like import. 



