POPPY. 189 



between Tarquiii the Proud and the messenger 

 who was sent by liis son from the city of Gabii. 



The Carnation Poppy, "which adds so consider- 

 ably to the gaiety of the garden during the months 

 of July and August, and which is so much cultivated 

 in France, and so greatly neglected in England, 

 is a variety of the common Poppy of our corn- 

 fields, Papaver Rhooas. In its double state it is a 

 flower of great beauty, both en account of its 

 crumpled and delicate texture, elegance of shape, 

 and variety in colouring, some being perfectly white, 

 others plain rose, blush, scarlet, or crimson, and on 

 others the pencil of nature seems to have blended 

 the dyes in the most finished style of colouring, with 

 petals thin as gossamer and double as the rose. 

 This flower bursts out of its confinement at maturity 

 with considerable force, throwing off the two-leaved 

 caducous calyx to some distance, and astonishing 

 the beholder who sees so large and so beautiful a 

 corolla escape from so small a dwelling. The 

 petals are frequently white, with a delicate edging 

 of scarlet or rose-colour, or red petals with white 

 edges, so variously diversified that two plants are 

 seldom alike in their flowers. 



With what delight and amazement do we fre- 

 quently regard the ingenuity of tlie mechanic when 

 he displays the movements of a watch, or a musical 

 box encompassed in a case of diminutive size ; but 



