Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/145

 SNOW BUNTING SNOWFLAKE 137 'acific coast is the J. Oregonus (Sclat.), head ind neck sooty black, a chestnut patch on the jk and wings, and the belly pure white. SNOW BUNTING. See BUNTING. SNOWDROP, an early spring flower, the name ing derived, according to Prior, from the Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis). tan Schneetropfen, which does not refer a drop of snow, but, so far as the drop is mcerned, to the pendents or ear drops worn ladies in the 16th and 17th centuries. The ius, galanthus (Gr. yd/la, milk, and avOoc, wer), belongs to the amaryllis family, and insists of three or four European species, small bulbs throw up two or three nar- >w leaves and a flattened scape which bears [usually) a single fragrant flower on a slender lodding pedicel ; the perianth has six separate visions, the three inner tipped with green id shorter than the three pure-white outer . The common snowdrop is G. nivalis, hich, though very common in England, is posed to be naturalized there; its leaves very narrow, and its flower stalk 3 to 6 high ; there is a double variety ; the plant looms early, often appearing in February. 'ie Crimean snowdrop (G. plicatus) has the ne general appearance as the common, but larger in all its parts. The bulbs, which are lall, should be planted in clumps, and bloom more satisfactorily if left undisturbed for sev- eral years. (For cultivation, see HYACINTH.) SNOWDROP TREE, a name given to shrubs or small trees of the genus Halesia, on account of the pure white pendulous flowers, which have also suggested the equally common name of silver-bell tree. Halesia belongs to the storax family, and is a genus of two or at most three species, which have large, veiny, pointed, de- ciduous, alternate leaves without stipules ; the flowers, in clusters or short racemes, open just as the leaves appear, from axillary buds of the previous year ; the small calyx is four- toothed, its tube cohering with the ovary; petals four, united at the base or to the mid- dle, forming a bell-shaped corolla; stamens 8 to 16, more or less united at the base; ovary two- to four-celled, becoming a large, dry, bony, two- to four-winged fruit with one to four cells, each of which contains a cylindrical seed. The best known species is the four- winged snowdrop tree (H. tetraptera), so called from the four wings to the fruit ; it is found from Virginia southward ; it sometimes reach- es the height of 60 ft., but is more general- ly much smaller; the bark is dark-colored, marked by light fissures, which give it a char- acteristic netted appearance ; the ovate-oblong leaves have glandular petioles, are 2 to 4 in. long, and finely serrate ; the flowers have f our- lobed corollas, nearly an inch long, with 12 to 16 stamens distinctly united below the middle. This tree is quite hardy in the northern states. The two- winged species (H. diptera) is more southern, and is found from the Carolinas southward; the larger leaves are coarsely serrate ; the flowers are larger than in the preceding, and consist of four nearly dis- tinct petals, and the 8 to 12 sta- mens are near- ly distinct; the fruit, which is about an inch long, has only two wings ; the tree does not grow so large as the other. This species is quite rare and difficult to find in the nurseries, forms of the preceding being confounded with it. Michaux described a third species, H. parm- flora, which seems to be nearly unknown, if indeed it be not a form of one of the others. The trees are raised from seeds, which, unless sown as soon as ripe, lie in the ground a year before they germinate. SNOWFLAKE, a name said to have been in- vented by Curtis for leuco'ium vernum, to distinguish it from snowdrop, to which it is nearly related and which it closely resembles. Leuco'ium (the ancient Greek name) is a small genus of the amaryllis family, of three species, all of which are European ; it differs from ga- lanthus (see SNOWDROP) in having one to seven flowers upon the scape, and the divisions of the flower are of equal length. In our catalogues L. vernum is the plant offered as snowflake, but the English designate this as spring snow- flake, as summer and autumnal species are also sold more commonly than with us. The spring snowflake comes very early, and is much like Snowdrop Tree (Halesia tetraptera).