52 
SNOW-DROP. 
but rather the emblem of sleety storms, and 
icy gales, (snowdrop weather,) and wrap 
their petals round the infant germ, fearing to 
admit the very air that blows ; and when found 
beyond the verge of cultivation, they most 
generally remind us of some deserted dwelling, 
a family gone, a hearth that smokes no more.” 
“On the approach of the season of heat, the 
beauty of this flower is much diminished ; the 
petals becoming expanded, its simple and 
elegant ovate form is lost. Nor is culture 
less injurious to its beautiful simplicity of 
character: the flower being crowded with 
petals, the effect of art, which usurp the place 
of its delicate and essential organs, is no 
longer that model of elegant simplicity which 
Nature designed: its original perfection is 
destroyed by the monstrous attempt to adorn 
that which was already perfect and lovely, 
and “ unadorned adorned the most.” Doubts 
have been entertained, whether this pearl— 
this “ morning-star of flowers,” is really indi- 
geneous, or whether it is a relic of cultivation : 
such situations, however, as at the foot of the 
Malvern Hills, where it is found, reasonably 
give it a place in the British Flora, as well as 
those of Switzerland, Austria, and Silesia.” 
In the Linnasan arrangement of plants, the 
Snow-drop is found in the class Hexandria , 
and order Monogynia. 
