GALANTHUS NIVALIS. THE SNOWDROP. 
Class VI. HEXANDRIA.— Order I. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order, AMARYLLACEiE. THE AMARYLLIS TRIBE. 
Galanthus Nivalis, Snow-drop, or Fair maids of February. Calyx an oblong spathe, gaping; corolla, 
three oblong concave petals; a cylindrical three leaved nectary, with the leaflets petal-shaped and notched; 
stigma simple ; the bulb coated and truncate, flowers milk white, solitary, pendulous ; nectary with a green 
spot, and yellowish green lines. 
Snowdrop roots taken up in winter and boiled, have the insipid mucilaginous taste of the Orchis, and 
if cured in the same manner, would probably make as good salep. Gmelin, in his history of Siberia, says, 
the Martagon Lily, which is of the same natural order as the snow-drop, makes a part of the food of that 
country. 
By cultivation, the snowdrop becomes double, but this metamorphosis does not improve the native 
elegance of this universal favorite. Among the innumerable effusions which this simple flower has inspired, 
none is more beautifully descriptive than the well-known verses of Mrs. Barhauld: 
“ Already now the Snow-drop does appear, 
The first pale blossom of the unripen’d year ; 
As Flora’s breath, by some transforming power, 
Had changed an icicle into a flower : 
Its name and hue the scentless plant retains 
And winter lingers in its icy veins.” 
This “Morning Star of Flowers” pure as the spotless drift from which it seems to take its rise, was 
dedicated by the Romish church to the purification of the Virgin Mary. 
“ The flower that first in the sweet garden smil’d, 
To virgins sacred — 
has also been deemed the emblem of consolation, as if by its earliest revival from the death-like repose of 
winter, cheering mortal man with the assurance of re-animation : 
Then, spirit flower, I’ll pluck thy bell, 
An offering for my breast ; 
And when ills come or passions swell, 
Thy prophet flowers each storm shall quell 
And give it promis’d rest. 
The characteristic of the snowdrop, which gives it a peculiar grace, and has made it a universal favorite 
is, that it is the first flower which greets the opening year, and is seen to peep out amid the snows of Feb- 
ruary. 
But why so far excursive ? when at hand, 
Along these blushing borders, bright with dew, 
And in yon mingled wilderness of flowers, 
Fair-handed Spring, unbosoms every grace ; 
Throws out the Snow-drop, and the Crocus first ; 
In Tickell’s poem of Kensington Garden, Kenna, ; 
her lover is killed by Azuriel, a prince of fairy birth, 
lifeless body of Albion, and changes it into a snowdrop. 
An herb there grows, (the same old Homer tells 
Ulysses bore to rival Circe’s spells) 
Its root is ebon-black, but sends to light 
A stem that bends with flowerets milky white ; 
Moly the plant, which gods and fairies know, 
But secret kept from mortal men below ; 
On his pale limbs its virtuous juice she shed, 
And murmured mystic numbers o’er the dead ; 
When lo ! the little shape by magic power 
Grew less and less, contracted to a flower, 
A flower that first in this sweet garden smiled, 
To virgins sacred, and the Snow-drop styled. 
The Daisy, Primrose, Violet darkly blue, 
And Polyanthus of unnumbered dyes ; 
The Yellow Wall-flower, stained with iron brown ; 
And lavish Stock that scents the garden round. 
Thomson. 
young fairy, falls in love with Albion, a mortal, but 
Kenna pours the juice of a mystic plant upon the 
The new-born plant with sweet regret she viewed, 
Warmed with her sighs, and with her tears bedewed, 
Its ripened seeds from bank to bank conveyed, 
And with her lover whitened half the shade : 
Thus won from death, each spring she sees him grow, 
And glories in the vegetable snow ; 
Which now increased through wide Britannia’s plains 
Its parent’s warmth and spotless name retains ; 
First leader of the flowery race aspires, 
And foremost catches the sun’s genial fires ; 
Mid frosts and snows, triumphant, dares appear, 
Mingles the seasons and leads on the year. 
