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Pretty, yet poisonous, favourite of poets Pretty, yet poisonous, favourite of poets
(about 13 hours later)
A dog barks from a house where I once lived. There are snowdrops flowering there that were so familiar and now I’m a stranger. I walk into the ruins of a garden that has been reclaimed by the woods, where the gardener has been estranged for a hundred years. There are clumps of single and double snowdrop varieties that were once highly prized and are now abandoned, rarely seen. They appear as breaths of history.A dog barks from a house where I once lived. There are snowdrops flowering there that were so familiar and now I’m a stranger. I walk into the ruins of a garden that has been reclaimed by the woods, where the gardener has been estranged for a hundred years. There are clumps of single and double snowdrop varieties that were once highly prized and are now abandoned, rarely seen. They appear as breaths of history.
Whether the snowdrops grew here before the house was built, no one knows. They appear to have been here forever, but there are no records by English herbalists of what the French monasteries called perce-neiges, snowpiercers, growing in the wild in Britain before 1770. Until they found their way into woods and stream banks, snowdrops were for burial grounds, graves, shrines, marking dwellings of the dead. That’s what these abandoned flowers do now.Whether the snowdrops grew here before the house was built, no one knows. They appear to have been here forever, but there are no records by English herbalists of what the French monasteries called perce-neiges, snowpiercers, growing in the wild in Britain before 1770. Until they found their way into woods and stream banks, snowdrops were for burial grounds, graves, shrines, marking dwellings of the dead. That’s what these abandoned flowers do now.
“Brutal as the stars of this month,” wrote Ted Hughes, “Her pale head hung heavy as metal” (snowdrop). It is unlucky here to bring snowdrops into the house. “Brutal as the stars of this month,” wrote Ted Hughes, “Her pale head hung heavy as metal” (Snowdrop). It is unlucky here to bring snowdrops into the house.
In these bulbs flow poisons: narcissine, galantamine and glycosidescillaine – alkaloids causing stomach ache, nausea, convulsions or worse. Snowdrop lectin has been synthesised into a chemical found in spider venom and is used to kill moth caterpillars in tomato crops; it is also being investigated for its potential activity against HIV.In these bulbs flow poisons: narcissine, galantamine and glycosidescillaine – alkaloids causing stomach ache, nausea, convulsions or worse. Snowdrop lectin has been synthesised into a chemical found in spider venom and is used to kill moth caterpillars in tomato crops; it is also being investigated for its potential activity against HIV.
Galantamine has been used to slow early onset Alzheimer’s and as a treatment against memory loss, and trauma to the nervous system. But galantamine is also an emmenagogue, stimulating menstrual flow, and can induce abortion in early stages of pregnancy.Galantamine has been used to slow early onset Alzheimer’s and as a treatment against memory loss, and trauma to the nervous system. But galantamine is also an emmenagogue, stimulating menstrual flow, and can induce abortion in early stages of pregnancy.
In the ruins of the old garden, the clumps of snowdrops grow where rabbits have scratched up shards of white crockery and bleached bones. This does not feel macabre, however, but a kind of emotional archaeology emerging from underground.In the ruins of the old garden, the clumps of snowdrops grow where rabbits have scratched up shards of white crockery and bleached bones. This does not feel macabre, however, but a kind of emotional archaeology emerging from underground.
The 19th-century American poet George Henry Boker wrote (Sonnet CXVI) “I cannot tell you why the snowdrops wake/If love exists not for its own sake.”The 19th-century American poet George Henry Boker wrote (Sonnet CXVI) “I cannot tell you why the snowdrops wake/If love exists not for its own sake.”