30 PAPAVERACEAE 



The White Water Lily is a most beautiful feature in our river 

 scenery ; generations of painters of the Thames have delineated 

 it on their canvas. Keeley Halswelle's pictures are very frequently 

 brightened by the introduction of this flower. In Hall's Book of the 

 Thames, the authors say, ' In the still recesses of the river about 

 Oxford we found that queen of water-nymphs ... in the greatest 

 luxuriance, both in the number, and in the extraordinary size of the 

 flowers and leaves .... We found that the stems were eight to ten feet 

 in length, and the leaves were of immense breadth ; the flowers were 

 also unusually developed, and some specimens were suffused with a 

 blush of roseate tint, that contrasted delightfully with the rich green 

 of the calyx and leaves.' 



The plant is found in all the bordering counties. 



PAPAVERACEAE, B. Juss. Hort. Trian. (1759). 



PAP AVER, Linn. Gen. PI. n. 573 (Tournefort, Inst. t. 119). 



* P. soMNiFERUM, Linn. Sp. PL 508 (1753). The Opium Poppy. 

 P. sylvestre, Ger. Em. 370 (lettered 400). 



Cyb. Br. i. 106. Comp. Cyb. Br. 479. Syme, E. B. i. 82, t. 57. Baxt. t. 53. 



Nyman, 23. Fl. Oxf. 17. 

 Alien. Waste places and cornfields. Rather rare. A. June-August. 

 First recorded by Mr. T. B. Flower (unlocalized) in Rohertsoiis Env. of 



Peading, 1843. 



1. Isis. Ciimnor HiU, Whitwell. Wytham. 



2. Oek. Plentiful on racecourse, Abingdon. Ferry Hinksey. Didcot. 



3. Pang. Field near Ilsley, HewetVs Hist. East Ilsley, W. M. Rogers. 



Ashridge Wood. Tileliurst. 



4. Kennet. Near Newbury. Padworth. Near West Ilsley. 



5. Loddon. Wargrave {glahrum)^ Melvill. Near Reading. Farley Hill. 



Twjrford. Maidenhead. Near Ascot. 



Var. NIGRUM, Crantz, Stirp. Austr. ii. 129. The dark-flowered form has 

 been noticed at Didcot, Tilehurst, Pangbourn, and Newbury. 



Var. ALBUM, Crantz, 1. c. The white-flowered plant is the commoner form. 



The form (laciniata, Reiclib.) with deeply-cut petals has been observed by 

 the railway about Pangbourn and Twyford, but this and the preceding 

 forms owe their origin to gardens, or to stray seeds which have been 

 scattered by various means. The variety with hispid hairs on the stem and 

 the leaves more deeply cut, retained as a distinct species by Willkomm and 

 Lange in Prod. FL Hisp. iii. 873, under the name P. setigerum, DC. Syst. ii. 81 

 (1821), but which Koch in Syn. Fl. Germ. 30 (1837) considers to be only the 

 wild state of P. soinniferum, occurred on railway ballast at Didcot in 1891. 



P. somniferum occurs in all the bordering counties, including Buckingham- 

 shire, at Taplow, &c. 



P. Rhoeas, Linn. Sp. PI. 507 (1753), and of Gerard 299, Common Red 

 Pofpy, Corn Poppy. 

 Papaver eiraticum Rhoeas, sive sylvestre, Park, 367 (1640. 

 Top. Bot. 22. Syme, E. B. i. 87, t. 58. Nyman, 24. Fl. Oxf. 17. 



