SPRING.

Here Spring appears, with flowery chaplets bound.

Pride of the year, purpureal Spring! attend,
And in the cheek of these sweet innocents
Behold your beauties pictured.

MASON.

Fresh Spring, the herald of love's mighty king,
In whose cote-armour richly are display'd
All sorts of flowres the which on earth do spring,
In goodly colours gloriously array'd.

When Spring begins the dewy scene,
How sweet to walk the velvet green;
And hear the zephyr's languid sighs,
As o'er the scented mead he flies!

SPENSER.

MOORE's Anacreon, Ode xli.

VOL. I.

B

SNOWDROP. Galanthus nivalis.

Natural Order Spathacea. Narcissi, Juss. A Genus of the Hexandria Monogynia Class.

Fair-handed Spring unbosoms every grace,
Throws out the Snowdrop and the Crocus first.
THOMSON.

As the dove was sent forth from the ark to learn whether the waters were abated, so does the Snowdrop seem selected by Flora to find whether the frost be mitigated, and as a herald to announce the arrival of her garland. It is the first flower that awakes from the repose of winter, and cheers us with the assurance of the re-animation of nature; and hence it has been made the emblem of consolation.

This delicate blossom was formerly held sacred to virgins; and this may account for its being so generally found in the orchards and gardens attached to old monastic buildings.

A flow'r that first in this sweet garden smiled,
To virgins sacred, and the Snowdrop styled.

TICKELL.

The Snowdrop stands in most of our late botanical works as a native plant, but it appears to

B 2

us not to have been originally indigenous to the British soil, from its being so rarely found excepting in spots that are known to have been the site of ancient gardens. It is unnoticed in the works of our oldest herbalists, and no allusions are made to it by our early poets.

Gerard says, "These plants do grow wilde in Italie and the places adjacent, notwithstanding our London gardens haue taken possession of them all, many yeeres past." This old author calls it Leucoium Bulbosum præcox, Timely-flowering Bulbous Violet. In a Dutch work on bulbous flowers, published in 1614, it is called Leucoium Bulbosum Triphyllon; and it is there mentioned as growing common in Italy, whilst in Holland it was at that time very seldom found, excepting in the gardens of the curious.

"In Italia frequens est, híc nisi in hortis curiosorum minimè invenitur.”

The writer of the same work has pictured a second species of Snowdrop, with broader leaves and of a larger size, which is named Leucoïum bulbosum Byzantinum præcox, and which is stated to be odorous. This, we presume, is the viola alba et viola bulbosa of Theophrastus; the Leucojum vernum of modern times, which Mr. Curtis named Snowflake, to distinguish it from the Snowdrop.

The name of Galanthus, which is given to the

Snowdrop, is from yaλa and aveos (milk and flower) on account of the milky whiteness of the corolla. The Italians call it Pianterella; the Germans Schneegloechern, snowbell; and the French have named it Perce Neige, because it often pierces through the snow. Their poet, Benserade, makes this flower say

Sous un voile d'argent, la terre ensevelie,

Me produit; malgré sa fraîcheur,

La Neige conserve ma vie,

Et me donnant son nom, me donne sa blancheur.

The English name of Snowdrop is no less appropriate for this delicate flower, which Mrs. Barbauld thus elegantly notices :

Now the glad earth her frozen zone unbinds,

And o'er her bosom breathe the western winds;
Already now the Snowdrop dares appear,
The first pale blossom of th' unripen'd year;
As Flora's breath, by some transforming power,
Had changed an icicle into a flower :

Its name and hue the scentless plant retains,
And winter lingers in its icy veins.

This early blossom demands our particular attention to its formation, which is so admirably adapted to the days of north winds and the nights of hoar frost, that it is impossible to observe it without acknowledging with what infinite wisdom nature has formed her lowest works. The delicacy with which the corolla is attached to the flowerstalk enables it to move with the winds in every