The first snowdrops of Spring

Finally!  The snow has melted under the newly curled Witch Hazel blooms, and look what we found?  Galanthus!   But wait~~ Galanthus is a genus, not a snowdrop.  What's worse, it is a small genus.  What in the world is a small genus?

And while we are at it, what is a genus after all?    Well, it's a category. A category of plants or animals that ranks "next above the species and next below the family".*  Ergo, we have the family Amaryllidaceae----->genus galanthus----->Species -~-hmmm.  Are the snowdrops the species?  Or the Genus?  Shall we get back to the point? 

Here with us today, under the enchanted witch hazel  tree, is a slew of happy snowdrops watching spring.

* Galanthus is a small genus of about 20 species in the family Amaryllidaceae commonly known as Snowdrops. Most flower in winter, before the Spring Equinox (OFTEN on 21st March in the Northern Hemisphere--Italics are mine)