XXV. — THE SUMMER SNOWFLAKE. 
Leucojum astivum Linne. 
I T is a beautiful sight, on a bright morning in May, to see the winding banks of 
the little river Loddon with masses of the white bells of the Summer Snowflake, 
or Loddon Lily, standing erect, or hanging over, and reflected in, the water. The 
clumps ot luxuriant foliage have, perhaps, a less English look than the fine clusters 
of blossom ; and in many respects the claims of this lovely species to be considered 
indigenous appear even less well-founded than those of its ally the Snowdrop. First 
recorded from both banks of the Thames below London, where it is now extinct, it 
seems to have a fairly continuous distribution from Suffolk to Oxford, Dorset, and 
Kent, i.e. for the south-eastern counties ; and this agrees with its continental 
extension, from Denmark and Holland southward. It is, perhaps, suspicious that it 
is frequently recorded from withy eyots, where various exotic species of osier are 
often cultivated, with which it may possibly have been introduced ; and its occurrence 
along the banks of the Loddon and not on other Thames tributaries reminds the 
sceptical botanist of the migration down stream of the White Water-lily from private 
water into the Cherwell and thence into the Lower Thames. The rapid spread 
of such other river-bank species as the American Balsam ( Impaliens biflora Walt.) on 
Tillingbourne, Wey, and Thames, and Mimulus Langsdorffii Donn on many of our 
streams, suggests possibilities for its foreign origin and ready dispersal ; but, whether 
indigenous or not, there can be no gainsaying its beauty. 
It has many of the structural characters of the Snowdrop, the two genera 
Galanthus and Leucojum having very much in common. In their likenesses and 
unlikenesses they are, in fact, a good example of generic distinctions. Like 
Galanthus , Leucojum has a tunicate bulb ; strap-shaped, radical leaves ; pendulous 
and generally white flowers borne on a peduncle rising direct from the bulb ; fifteen 
floral leaves in five whorls of three each ; the six stamens in two whorls but of equal 
length ; and the three-chambered ovary inferior. On the other hand, Leucojum 
differs from Galanthus in having numerous leaves to each bulb ; generally several 
flowers on each scape ; flowers which do not expand to the same extent as do those 
of the Snowdrop, but retain an incurved bell-like form ; six perianth-leaves almost 
alike, each with a green patch at the tip externally and internally ; anthers with no 
bristle-like tip, and opening by an external longitudinal slit as well as by the 
terminal pore on the inner surface ; and a club-shaped style. 
The name Leucojum , now definitely applied to this genus, since botanists have 
agreed in such matters to follow as far as possible the nomenclature of Linnaeus, 
dates, it is true, as far back as Dioscorides, in the first century ; but it has been used 
for a great variety of plants. Etymologically it signifies a white violet, from the 
Greek XevKo s, leukos, white, and t ov, ion , a violet ; but its last three letters may, 
perhaps, be looked upon as a mere termination, and then, though one species has 
