181 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. A. D. Webster tells me that the spring before he left 

 Llandegai he found in the Penrhyn woods a pink-flowered Snow- 

 drop, which he transferred to his garden. When he left his 

 residence, shortly after, the bulbs passed into the hands of a 

 Church dignitary, from whom he can get no information about 

 them. Mr. Webster says "the colour was like deep pink seen 

 through muslin," and he has every confidence that it would be 

 permanent. 



In the spring of 1887 a note appeared in the Garden describ- 

 ing a pink Snowdrop which had appeared in a garden near 

 Norwich. A friend took very much trouble in making inquiries 

 about this for me. It was found that the young ladies of the 

 house had played a joke on the gardener by watering a clump of 

 Snowdrops with a strong solution of cochineal, which was partly 

 absorbed by the plant and resulted in the blossoms having a pink 

 tint. I have never tried this experiment.* 



In 1856 Lord Clarina brought home with him from the Crimea 

 some Snowdrop bulbs which he had collected whilst there. These 

 roots were planted in the garden at Straffan House, Co. Kildare, 

 where they have been growing since that time. Such is the 

 history that comes to me with the Straffan Snowdrop. One 

 would naturally expect this to be a variety of G. plicatus, but 

 it appears to be an unusually fine form of G. Imperati. Can our 

 botanical friends clear up the mystery ? Is G. Imperati a native 

 of the Crimea as well as G. plicatus ? 



About ten years since I had a Snowdrop from M. Van Houtte 

 under the name of G. Redoutei. It was not Dr. Kegel's plant, 

 but a very fine form of G. nivalis, and very distinct, from its tall 

 habit and large flower. I believe there is a G. nivalis major 

 {Redoutei), and probably this is it. 



G. umbricus appears to be nothing more than G. Imperati 

 collected from a new district. It varies very much in quality of 

 flower, and some good things may probably be selected from it, 

 but I do not think that it is going to give us a December-flower- 

 ing Snowdrop as promised by Messrs. Dammann. 



G. n. Cathcartice is a small form of not very robust constitution. 



* From information received since this paper was written I feel convinced 

 that the Pink Snowdrop referred to by the late Mr. Threlfall was the one 

 that had been " doctored " with cochineal in the neighbourhood of Norwich 

 in the spring of 1887.— J. A. 



