THE SUMMER SNOWFLAKE— continued. 
rosy-red blossoms, the name will be recognised as on the whole appropriate. The 
English name “ Snowflake ” is quite modern, having been coined apparently by 
William Curtis (1746-99), the founder of the “Botanical Magazine” and the 
“ Flora Londinensis ” ; but it is so obviously suitable as to have become general 
wherever the plant is grown or known. The specific name of the commoner of the 
two species that occur in England seems to us less well chosen ; since although the 
other species, Leucojum vernum L., flowering from March to April, is justly called 
the Spring Snowflake, this species, L. <estivum L. (from the Latin wstas, summer), is 
generally in flower in May and over by June, so that it belongs to a season that is 
hardly to be called summer. 
The flowers of the year were long ago grouped in six floras : the Primaveral, 
following on the close of January frosts ; the Vernal, coming on about the beginning 
of May ; the Solstitial, towards the middle of June ; the ./Estival, in July ; the 
Autumnal, in September ; and the Hibernal, in November. According to this 
division L. vernum L. is Primaveral ; L. astivum L., Vernal. 
The earlier-flowering species, L. vernum L., has a more doubtful claim to rank 
as a British plant, occurring only in some Dorsetshire copses. It is a much smaller 
plant than L. <estivum L., and bears but one or at most two blossoms on each scape. 
In the “summer” species the bulb is roundish and an inch long, and the 
numerous leaves are about eighteen inches long, linear, obtuse, and bluntly keeled, 
and are enclosed with the flower-stalk in one or more very short, membranous 
sheaths. The hollow, two-edged flower-stalk stands erect at first, attaining a height 
about equal to that of the leaves, and bearing the flowers, in a cluster of from two to 
six together, on slender pedicels, in the axil of the unnotched erect spathe. The buds 
are borne erect, adapted, it is said, to shoot off water from their closed apices ; and 
they droop as they expand. In the fruiting stage the whole scape falls prostrate 
among the leaves, which also spread out more horizontally. The flowers have 
neither perfume nor excreted honey ; but sugar occurs in the delicate tissue of the 
six similar perianth-leaves just below the green spots which occur both inside and 
outside the apex of the perianth-leaf, and some of this may sometimes be extracted 
by boring insects. As the pistil is rather longer than the six stamens, though all 
are enclosed within the bell-shaped perianth, self-pollination is probably exceptional. 
The six ovate perianth-leaves, each about three-quarters of an inch long, are slightly 
united at their bases. The six short, flattened filaments rise, or rather hang, from 
the top of the top-shaped inferior ovary ; and the numerous seeds are simple, 
rounded, and black. 
Snowflakes are easily cultivated, preferring a rich sandy loam with leaf-mould, 
but not with farmyard manure in contact with the bulbs. Cloves will form readily 
and increase the number of bulbs with very little attention. 
