Somehow, the final paragraphs of the original version of this post disappeared when it was sent. And, I pasted in the wrong subject line. So, if, in the future, someone should stumble on this part of the post, the beginning of it is in the thread Re:[PBS] Blooming now. Here's the rest of it: Parkinson treated the snowdrop as an exotic plant. He seems to have known two sorts: Leucoium bulbosum praecox minus and Leucoium bulbosum praecox minus Byzantinum. The former was likely what we know as Galanthus nivalis: he mentions that it quickly splits up into many, as he calls them, of-sets. I’ll leave it to someone else to explain when the modern names snowdrop and snowflake in their modern horticultural senses came into common usage. Parkinson did not have a vernacular English name for them other than “bulbous violet”, a name strongly influenced by the botanical term (his Leucoium is from the Greek words for white and violet). The violet part was perhaps influenced by the violet scent of L. vernum. He does cite vernacular names in other languages: for instance, the Dutch Somer Sottekens (probably for Leucojum aestivum). The modern German term for snowdrop, Schneetropfchen (from the words for snow and drop) is not cited by Parkinson, nor is any other German name. But he does attribute both his Leucoium bulbosum maius (= our Leucojum vernum) and his Leucoium bulbosum minus (likely our Galanthus nivalis) to Germany and Hungary. Because Parkinson’s concept of daffodil (his Narcissus and Pseudonarcissus) was very broad – it also included what we now know as Zephyranthes, Pancratium and Sprekelia - some people might find these old attempts at taxonomy risible. But ask yourself (and be honest): would you have guessed that Sprekelia, Zephyranthes, Narcissus, Pancratium are not only related, but more closely related to one another than they are to tulips, fritillaries, erythroniums and lilies? Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7 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/