ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 241 



species. G. Elwesei is, moreover, a variable plant. Some 

 have small flowers, while others are the giants of the 

 snowdrop famil}^ Their native country is Asia Minor. 

 It is an exceedingly handsome and showy variety, 

 but I do not think it will ever take the place in this 

 country of G. nivalis, as it seems to refuse to be 

 naturalised. There are several good forms of this plant, 

 such as " Cassaba," which has very upright, thick, and 

 long leaves; and G. Elwesei globosus, a very robust and 

 sometimes two-flowered globose form. The largest of all, 

 however, is the last introduced, G. Whittalli, so called 

 after its discoverer. I will mention another fine variety 

 when I come to speak for a few minutes on the so-called 

 green snowdrops. I notice in Mr Nicholson's article on 

 this subject, in his " Dictionary of Gardening," that he 

 also states that there are only three species of snow- 

 drops; but he makes G. Elwesei one of the three, the 

 other two being G. nivalis and G. plicattis, the Crimean 

 snowdrop, thereby absorbing Mr Burbidge's, third species 

 with broad lorate green leaves, such as latifolius, Fosteri, 

 and Icarice, into G. nivalis. It will thus be seen how 

 difficult it is to make all the varieties fit into the three 

 species that are dependent on the character of the 

 leaves alone. In all the circumstances it seems prudent 

 to leave this matter for some mDre experienced botanist 

 to solve, and in the meantime to confine oneself to 

 noticing a few of the more interesting and beautiful 

 forms which occur in our gardens. 



The second species is G. plicatus, the Crimean snow- 

 drop. This has a very distinct leaf with 

 Qalanthus a longitudinal fold on both sides near the 

 plicatus. edge, and the leaves are also glaucescent 



like those in the G. nivalis section. I hear 

 many complaints from snowdrop growers, that this 

 species has a curious habit of dying off" without apparent 

 cause. This, however, is not my experience. There 

 are some forms of it certainly that are rather iniffy, 



