Galanthus "Akrokorion"), he placed "Galanthus" in the family Liliaceae, section Narcissi. Lamarck provided a description of the genus in his encyclopedia (1786) and later "Illustrations des genres" (1793). In 1789 de Jussieu, who is credited with the modern concept of genera organised in families, placed "Galanthus" and related genera within a division of Monocotyledons, using a modified form of Linnaeus' sexual classification but with the respective topography of stamens to carpels rather than just their numbers. In doing so he restored the name "Galanthus" and retained their placement under Narcissi, this time as a family (known as "Ordo", at that time)
Galanthus nivalis (flowering stalk), which bears at the top a pair of bract-like spathe valves joined by a papery membrane. From between them emerges a solitary, pendulous, bell-shaped white flower, held on a slender pedicel. The flower consists of six tepals, also referred to as segments. The outer three are larger and more convex than the inner ones. The inner flower segments are usually marked on their outer surface with a green or greenish-yellow V- or U-shaped mark (sometimes described as "bridge-shaped") over the small sinus (notch) at the tip of each tepal. The inner surface has a faint green mark covering