126 THE ASSOCIATIONS OF FLOWERS 
The long icicles or hoar-frost hanging about the dwellings, 
and bespangling the casements, give to the buildings the 
appearance of palaces touched by the enchanter’s hand, 
and bid to glitter to the sun. Every blade of grass is 
crested with diamonds ; and the reflection of the clear blue 
skies upon the snow, lends it a tinge of most delicate lilac. 
Then the hollow, dirge-like sounds of the winds, as they 
drive all before them in their fury, and rustle the dead 
leaves and the broken branches, or tear up the high trees 
by their roots, so impress the imagination with sublimity, 
and bear so wild and deep-toned a music withal, that we 
are compensated for any temporary fears for our own 
safety which they awaken ; and did we not think upon the 
sailor on the deep, and the weary, half-frozen traveller, 
and the homeless poor; could we forget all but ourselves, 
we might welcome winter as a season of sublimity, and 
even be willing that it should last a month longer than its 
appointed time. 
Those who are not aware that white flowers belong as 
much to regions of ice and snow as to the glowing por- 
tions of earth, may wonder to see so frail-looking a flower 
as the snowdrop 
“ Come before the swallow dares, 
And take the winds of March with beauty.” 
A lovely flower it is in itself ; its simple English name 
signifying the intense whiteness which it possesses, and 
which few other blossoms exhibit to so great a degree. 
Indeed, when the snowdrop is seen on the country land- 
scape, it may bear comparison with the whitest tint which 
nature can display. There is no flower whose hue seems 
equally impaired by the air of a town ; for the slightest 
soil will tarnish its lustre. Like many another lovely 
thing, an unkindly atmosphere may bid it perish. Lovely 
it is in its drooping blossom and unsullied purity ! Lovely, 
too, in its early appearance; this firstling of the year is 
like the feelings of youth, gentle and pure, and heedless 
of clouds and storms. The French call it “ Perce-neige, ” 
because it lifts its head above the snowy ground ; while its 
leaves have their fleecy garment hanging upon them. 
In former times, when the Roman Catholic religion 
