purple violets were already come: vain hope! which not only the season
but the place forbids; for though I have found _white_ violets near the
scene of these excursions, in the south of England, yet I believe the
sweet-scented purple do not grow in that neighbourhood. In a late
ramble, there was a spot which I was eager to reach; for there I knew
that I should find

'Chaste snow-drop, venturous harbinger of spring,
And pensive monitor of fleeting years.'

This pretty well-known flower, sometimes called Fair Maid of February
(_Galanthus Nivalis_), belongs to the same natural order as the daffodil
and narcissus--the _Amaryllideæ_. Gerarde calls it 'the timely flouring
bulbous violet,' and thus graphically describes it: 'It riseth out of
the ground,' says he, 'with two small leaves flat and crested, of an
overworne greene colour, betweene the which riseth up a small and tender
stalk of two hands high; at the top whereof commeth forth of a skinny
hood a small white floure of the bignesse of a violet compact of six
leaves, three bigger and three lesser, tipped at the points with a light
greene; the smaller one fashioned into the vulgar forme of a heart, and
prettily edged about with greene; the other three leaves are longer and
sharp-pointed. The whole floure hangeth downe his head by reason of the
weak footstalk whereon it groweth. The root is small, white, and
bulbous.' It is one of the earliest flowers which appear, and may often
be seen bursting through the snow, the virgin white of its petals by no
means shamed by the lustrous purity of its cold bed. It has no calyx;
six stamens; the filaments short and hair-like; the anthers oblong, with
a bristly point, and one pistil, the style being cylindrical, and longer
than the stamens. The capsule, which is nearly globular, contains three
cells, in which are numerous globular seeds. It is found in orchards,