SNOWDROPS. 



199 



continued or permanent culture as it is of a hothouse or forcing- 

 pit temperature, and once planted in suitable soil it enjoys being 

 left alone to grow at its own pace. It is also clearly established 

 that double and single (G. nivalis) varieties do not always suc- 

 ceed alike on all soils. Wherever the singles luxuriate, there the 

 doubles generally thrive also, but the reverse of this is not always 

 true, since double Snowdrops often thrive where the singles die 

 off, either by reason of the fungoid disease peculiar to them, or 

 from some other unknown cause, and possibly lack of moisture. 

 The reason why and wherefore, however, is really a puzzle not as 

 yet found out ! Some will even go the length of telling you that 

 in such gardens " the single Snowdrops all turn to ' double ' 

 ones " ! The fact, however, is that the " doubles " often grow and 

 increase, while the singles die out. Now and then, however, the 

 reverse is true. At Dunrobin Castle, N.B., for example, where 

 there are two or three acres of Snowdrops in the grass under 

 trees, the singles thrive and increase far better than the double 

 ones do. 



Wherever Snowdrops really luxuriate in grass, or in beds and 

 in borders, they also seed freely, and I have known Snowdrops 

 to become well established from fresh -gathered seeds sown on 

 soils where bulbs were formerly tried but had died away. Seed 

 should be sown as soon as ripe ; it germinates the succeeding 

 winter and spring, and seedlings flower in from three to five 

 years. 



Snowdrops look better, their flowers last longer clean and 

 pure in colour, and they frequently thrive far better in the solid 

 grass-covered ground than on bare cultivated ground. Only the 

 other day I read in one of the gardening journals of twenty 

 pounds per annum having been made of the Snowdrop flowers 

 growing in the grass around the boles of apple-trees in a country 

 orchard. In county Wicklow I have seen Snowdrops twelve to 

 sixteen inches high in the lush grass of an unmown lawn, and at 

 Straffan, county Kildare, the masses of G. nivalis, G. plicatiis, 

 and G. nivalis grandis, under the spreading lime-trees, are re- 

 markable features in February. 



Snowdrop bulbs are so cheap, and on most soils give so little 

 trouble after they are once well planted on grass near trees, that the 

 wonder is they are not more generally grown. The best Snow- 

 drop of all for naturalisation is G. nivalis, and its double and 



