THE SNOW-DROP. 
The Snow-drop (which may be found in meadows and 
orchards) receives its name from the whiteness of its 
flower, and the time of its appearance, which is often 
when snow is on the ground. Its botanical appellation is 
Galanthus nivalis, or snowy milk flower. 
The Snow-drop, considered as the harbinger of spring 
and the promise of future blessings, is the most cheering 
and welcome of plants. Rearing its spotless head amid 
frost and storm, it gives joyous sign of that coming sea¬ 
son which is to restore the delights of budding flowers 
and sunny skies. But there are some persons who, though 
« skilled in nature’s lore,” deny that it is adapted to awaken 
pleasing anticipations. “ The Snow-drop,” writes Mr. 
Knapp,* “ is a melancholy flower. The season in which 
the ‘ Fair-maids of February’ come out, is the most dreary 
and desolate of our year: they peep through the snow 
that often surrounds them, shivering and cheerless; they 
convey no idea of reviving nature, and are scarcely the 
harbingers of milder days, but rather the emblem of sleety 
storms, and icy gales, (snow-drop 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 
* See “Journal of a Naturalist.’ 
( 49 ) 
