The Snowdrop 



each other by mere differences of light 

 and shade. 



We now pass on to the flower of the 

 Snowdrop. This, as every one knows, 

 droops from the end of a slender stalk, 

 which arises at the top of the stem from 

 a sheath-like bract or spathe. Now look 

 at that slender stalk, and notice parti- 

 cularly the character of the bend it makes. 

 This is not, as it is sometimes represented 

 in drawings, a gradual, arching curve. 

 The stalk would then look weak, as if 

 bent by the weight of the flower, and 

 such a condition can never naturally be 

 found, except in a sickly Snowdrop, or 

 else in double blossoms, where it is ex- 

 tremely common. And notice, if you have 

 met with any such specimen, how com- 

 pletely all its beauty is destroyed. In a 

 healthy Snowdrop this stalk is for the 

 most part nearly straight, bending slightly, 

 and only slightly, to the weight of the 

 flower.^ Slender though it be, it seems 

 to assert its own freedom and perfect 

 ability to stand as upright as it pleases. 

 But just at the end it makes a sudden 



^ If the flower be young, there will be hardly any per- 

 ceptible bend in the slender flower-stalk ; it will bend 

 just slightly in an older specinrien. [In the older speci- 

 men the weight is increased by the swelling seed-vessel. 

 —H. N. E.] 



7 



