Snowdrop, 
Galanthus nivalis. NaruraL Orper: Amaryllidacee—Amaryllis Family 
” URICH, with the adjoining cantons of Switzerland and some 
other localities in Europe, may be considered the original 
habitats of this little plant, the botanical name of which sig- 
nifies Snowy Milk-flower. It flourishes in the meadows and 
along the water courses that abound in the neighborhood of 
»> the Alps, where the pure and everlasting snow rests like a 
doud between the blue sky*above and the green and fertile valley 
beneath. It is very hardy, as it would indeed have to be to exist 
Ye amid such surroundings. Having been many years cultivated, it has 
found its way from the parterres abroad into the gardens of America, 
where it may be seen peeping from its snowy coverlet long before 
other flowers burst from their wintry prisons, or nature awakes from 
her dreaming. The roots are bulbous, and in planting they show to 
better advantage where several (from six to eight) are set in a group, when, in 
a few years, the increase will warrant a division. The flower is of a fair size, 
and pendulous, with only a single blossom on a stem. 
Bunsetation, 
Om sweetly beautiful it is to mark 
The virgin, vernal snowdrop! lifting up— 
Meek as a nun-—the whiteness of its cup, 
From earth’s dead bosom, desolate and dark. 
WEET flower, thou tell’st how hearts ER precious pearl, in sorrow’s cup, 
As pure and tender as thy leaf—as low Unmelted at the bottom lay, 
And humble as thy stem —will surely know To shine again, when, all drunk up, 
The joy that peace imparts. —Percival. The bitterness should pass away. 
—Moore. 
HE little shape, by magic pow’r, 
Grew less and less, contracted to a flow’r; 
A flow’r, that first in this sweet garden smiled, 
\ To virgins sacred, and the snowdrop styled. 
i {ps —Tickell, 
Px» 247 
