203 FLORA HISTORICA. 



tion of our reade s to the interview which took 

 place between Tarquin the Proud and the mes- 

 senger who was sent by his 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, Fapcwer Rhceas. In its double state it is 

 a flower of singular beauty, both on account of 

 its crumpled and delicate texture, elegance of 

 shape, and variety in colouring, some being per- 

 fectly 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 ofl* 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 fre- 

 quently 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- 



