Judy wrote: “ Now come on, folks. Do you find the appearance of snowdrop and snowflake so similar as to be confused? Is Leucojum aestivum, flowering in May with 3 or more flowers indistinguishable from L. vernum flowering 2 months early at less than half the size and only a single flower?” Actually, I find it easy to believe that they might be confused. A friend told me yesterday that he noticed that Leucojum aestivum had already started to bloom in his garden here in Maryland; in my nearby garden L. vernum has just finished. Thus, Leucojum aestivum was in bloom on the first full day of spring, and who knows, it might have been in bloom the day before on the last day of winter. Furthermore, L. vernum does not always have a single flower: paired flowers are well known. To add to the potential confusion, the individual flowers of L. vernum are bigger than the individual flowers of the much taller L. aestivum. I well remember the confusion I experienced decades ago when I imported what was supposed to be Leucojum vernum from a British supplier. What was sent was a form of L. aestivum (which still persists in the garden) which, while much taller than L. vernum as I eventually came to know it, is still smaller than the typical L. aestivum of gardens. It took me a while to stop trying to convince myself that it really was L. vernum. As for the distinction between snowflakes and snowdrops, I can easily understand why they might be confused. If the only ones known (as would have been the case to most gardeners hundreds of years ago) are the common snowdrop Galanthus nivalis and Leucojum vernum and L. aestivum, then wouldn’t they make a nice little genus? In Parkinson’s day, when only three Leucojum and two snowdrops were known and all were regarded as exotic plants, they were all called Leucojum (or a he spelled it, Leucoium, a reminder that the j in the modern spelling is not the English j but rather the semivowel i) Remember, in Parkinson’s time, what we now know as Zephyranthes and Pancratium maritimum were Narcissius and Pseudonarcissus respectively. His Narcissus included all the short-trumpet or no-trumpet sorts, including short trumpet Pancratium (in the modern sense); his Pseudonarcissus included the long trumpet sorts. History suggests that there is plenty of good reason to be confused occasionally. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7, where fritillaries, tulips, crocuses, alliums and lots of others are germinating freely now in the cold frames. My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/