prea baa a eee SR 
| 
i 
SNOW BERRY. 
spring, and occasions a continual flow of water 
in the form of perennial springs from beneath 
|| the perpetually frozen summits and shoulders of 
alpine mountains. . 
The sowing of the seeds of many kinds of green- 
house plants in snow, such as those of the heath, 
the rhodora, the cactus, the leguminous, and the 
gourd orders, has been found, in somewhat re- 
cent experiments on the Continent, to promote 
germination. ‘The manner of sowing is to fill the 
| pots to a suitable height with the kind of soil 
proper for each species, to put a layer of snow on 
the top of the soil, to sow the seed on this, to 
| put another layer of snow over the seed, to set 
_ the pots thus sown in a glass-covered box, to 
| place the box in a house at a temperature of 
about 59° or 60° Fahrenheit, and, as soon as the 
| snow melts or the germ appears, according to 
_ the nature of the species, to lay on a sprinkling 
of sandy earth. 
_ both surer and more rapid than in the ordinary 
| methods of sowing. 
The germination is said to be 
“Tt appears to me,” says 
Liebig, “that the loose formation of the snow, 
which allows of an uninterrupted admission of 
| oxygen, the exclusion of those foreign agents 
_ which are always found in a soil that contains cor- 
rupted vegetable matter, and finally, the volatile 
_ alkali of the snow—all these causes combined 
effect the remarkable appearance of germination 
in this process.” Another physiologist takes a 
similar view of the matter, and suggests the two 
following additional explanations :—“1. When 
the seed is in the snow, the temperature cannot 
be far from the freezing point, as long as there 
is snow there ; the melted snow, provided it is 
| not warm, does not draw any matter from the 
seed which is necessary for its vitality, therefore, 
it remains the same. 2. The melted snow only 
moistens the surface of the seed, without sub- 
| merging it, and easily penetrates the cells of the 
| seeds by means of the capillary tubes, from which 
the air must escape; if the seed is too moist, 
the excess of fluidity does not produce a propor- 
tionate softness of the seed, as the air that is 
contained in the seed cannot so easily escape to 
give place to the moisture.” - 
SNOWBALL-TREE. See Guetprr Ross. 
SNOWBERRY, — botanically Chiococca. A 
small genus of exotic plants of the madder 
family. The racemose species, C. racemosa, is a 
white-flowered, ornamental, evergreen, winter- 
blooming shrub, of about 6 feet in height, and 
was introduced to the hothouse collections of 
Britain, upwards of a century ago, from Jamaica. 
—The serpent-expelling species, 0. anguifuga, is 
a white-flowered, medicinal, evergreen, summer- 
blooming shrub, of about 3 feet in height; and 
was introduced to Britain about 24 years ago 
from Brazil. 
SNOWDROP, — botanically Galanthus. A 
small genus of hardy, ornamental, bulbous- 
rooted plants, of the amaryllis order. The com- 
| mon species, G. nivalis, grows wild in the mea- 
SNOWFLAKE. 245 
dows, orchards, hedge-sides, and river-banks of 
many parts of Britain; and is a great and uni- 
versal favourite as a winter-blooming or early 
spring-blooming ornament of all sorts of open- 
ground flower gardens. It comprises three va- 
rieties,—the single, the semi-double, and the 
double. Its bulb resembles that of a narcissus, 
but is much smaller ; its leaves rise from the 
crown of the bulb, and are erect, obtuse, keeled, 
and glaucous; its flower-stalk ascends from the 
midst of the leaves, and is slender, drooping, and 
about 4 or 6 inches high; and its flower is soli- 
tary, white, scentless, and beautiful. This plant 
thrives in almost any soil, and multiplies ex- 
ceedingly by bulbous offsets, and requires scarcely 
any culture ; and though inconspicuous and pal- 
try when planted singly, it makes a fine appear- 
ance, and contrasts most sumptuously with the 
general wintriness of the garden, when planted 
in close groups of twenty bulbs or upwards in 
each group. It prospers well under trees or 
hedges ; and is therefore suitable for wood-walks 
and wilderness quarters. The bulbs may be 
taken up in the latter part of June, when “the 
leaves decay, and may be kept out of the ground 
till the end of August; but they must not be 
removed oftener than every third year.—The 
plaited snowdrop, G. plicatus, was introduced to 
Britain about 30 years ago from the Crimea; 
and is similar in height and habit and general 
appearance to the common species. 
SNOWDROP-TREE,—botanically Halesita. A 
small genus of hardy, ornamental, white-flowered, 
deciduous, North American shrubs, of the storax 
family. Three species, the two - winged, the 
small-flowered, and the four-winged, respectively 
about 6, 8, and 10 feet high, have been intro- 
duced to the shrubberies of Britain; and all 
bloom in the advanced part of spring, and love 
a soil of peaty loam, and are propagated from 
layers.—The name snowdrop-tree is sometimes 
given also to the chionanthus genus. See the 
article Frinen-TREE. : 
SNOWFLAKE, — botanically Zeucojum. A 
genus of hardy, ornamental, bulbous - rooted 
plants, of the amaryllis order. The summer 
species, L. estivum, grows wild in the moist mea- 
dows and marshy river banks of some parts of 
England, and has a height of from 15 to 20 
inches, and blooms in April and May; and the 
spring species, Z. vernwm, was introduced to 
Britain from Germany toward the close of the 
16th century, and has a height of about 8 or 10 
inches, and blooms from January till March,— 
but comprises a later blooming variety from the 
Carpathian Mountains, and an abundantly flow- 
ering variety which originated in gardens ; and 
both species have white flowers very similar to 
those of the snowdrop, and were formerly known 
among florists under the name of tall snowdrops, 
—and they love a soil of sandy loam, and are 
propagated, in the same sort of way as daffodils 
and narcissi, from bulbous offsets. 
