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his dwelling ; perchance, the shock of civil war levelled 
it with the ground; or it might be that persécution 
dispersed a band of religious men who here reposed, 
and razed their house to its very foundation ! They 
are gone—and, but for the flowers that flourish on the 
spot we should not suspect they had ever for a season 
sojourned there. 
The Snowdrop springs to life in a dreary hour, 
when the blasts of winter are yet sweeping over the 
earth; she has therefore been justly chosen as the 
emblem of consolation. There is, too, but one species 
of the genus ; and though I fear I shall be thought 
very fanciful in expressing the idea, it seems to me 
an additional reason for selecting her ; as we know that 
for the time of gloom, and for the season of trial, we 
hâve but one source of consolation. 
A member of the Roman Catholic church thus 
prettily mentions the Snowdrop. “ Mindful of the 
pious festivals which our church prescribes, I hâve 
sought to make the charming objects of floral nature 
the time-pièces of my religious calendar. Thus I can 
light the taper to our Virgin Mother on the blowing 
of the Snowdrop, which opens its floweret at the time 
of Candlemas.” 
