Snowdrop

 One of the first flowers of spring, and  commonly known as the flower of hope.    Although its beauty symbolises purity, it is widely regarded as a omen of death and as suchis considered to be unlucky to take into the house of anybody who is sick, exceptin Shropshire where bunches of the flowers are taken into the house to purify it.
After Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, Eve stood weeping and surveying the  snowy wilderness to which they had been sent when an angel appeared. The glowing figure caught a falling snowflake, breathed on it and then handed it to Eve:
‘This is an earnest wish, Eve to theeThat sun and summer soon shall be’
The angel vanished and where she had stood the snow had turned into a carpet of snowdrops.

From 'Faerie Flora'