CHIONANTHUS, the Snow-drop or FRINGE TREE: A genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the diandria class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 44th order, Sepiaria. The corolla is quadrifid, with the segments very long; the fruit is a plum. There is but one species particularly described by botanists, viz. the Virginica. It is common in Virginia and South Carolina, where it grows by the sides of rivulets. It rises to the height of ten feet; the leaves are as large as those of the laurel, but much thinner. The flowers come out in May, and are of a pure white; from whence it has the name of the snow-drop tree. They hang down in large branches, and are cut into narrow segments; from which it has got its other name of the fringe-tree. After the flowers are fallen off, the fruit appears, which grows to the size of a floe, having a stone in the middle. The plants are propagated from seeds sown on a hot-bed, and kept in a stove. Some have been raised from layers; but this method is very precarious, and therefore the other is to be preferred. The seeds must be procured from America, for they never come to perfection in this country.