Linnean System of Plants. 55 



fallen with it from the clouds? Who does not hail the 

 pretty snowdrop ? The name of this flower is happily ex- 

 pressive of its whiteness, lightness, and pendent grace, and of 

 the season of its birth. The botanical appellation is not 

 quite so comprehensive, Galanthus (milk-flower) nivalis 

 (snowy). To the passing eye the snowdrop appears wholly 

 white, because its three outer petals, being longer than the three 

 inner, close over them, and conceal a stamp of green on their 

 outer side and many fine lines of green within. We generally 

 find that the whitest flowers are more or less tinged with 

 a pale green, which seems rather to increase than to detract 

 from their whiteness. We may observe this in the snowflake, 

 or summer snowdrop, ieucojum (leukos, white, ion, violet) 

 aestivalis (of the summer). Notwithstanding that "snow in har- 

 vest" is proverbially unwelcome, this is a general favourite, and 

 not unfrequently confounded with the true snowdrop of spring : 

 there are, however, obvious distinctions between them; the 

 snowdrop is a solitary flower, the snowflake has three or four 

 blossoms in a cluster; the latter has all its petals of equal 

 length, and each tipped with a stamp of green, visible on both 

 sides. The specific name is scarcely correct, for the plant 

 blooms in the month of May. Another elegant little white 

 flower appears in the interval between the death of the early 

 snowdrop and the birth of the latter, in English termed the 

 Star of Bethlehem, but botanically named, like the others, 

 with reference to its whiteness, Ornithogalum (bird's-milk) 

 umbellatum (from its mode of inflorescence). The petals 

 spread open in the form of a star, each having on the under 

 side a keel of pale green. This plant was so common, from 

 the earliest times, in Bethlehem, and all Palestine, that the 

 bulbs were an article of food; apparently of the cheapest kind, 

 since, in the 2d book of Kings, we find the high price charged 

 for a measure of them coupled with the dear rate of an ass's 

 head, to show the extent of a famine in Syria : they are still 

 eaten there. In this country the plant is rare, though less so 

 than the 



" Lone flower, hemm'd in with snows, and white as they." 



The Mircissus [narke, stupor ; effect of smell ; Encycl. of 

 Plants], which derives its name and birth from the youth who 

 pined with self-love, while he thought he loved another, is also 

 a native of this country. Though many have fallen into the 

 same mistake, he is the only acknowledged victim to it, of 

 whom Fame has preserved the memory. We are told that 



** Narcissus, drooping on his rUl, 

 Keeps his odorous beauty still ; " 



E 4 



