•96 THE POPPY FAMILY. 



HABITATS AND LOCALITIES. 



1. Celandine — [Cheliddnium maj'us.) 

 Hedges and waste places, always among other plants, and generally 

 near houses, looking like a garden outcast. Eccles, Alderley, Bagu- 

 ley, Ashton-upon-Mersey, Bowdon, &c., common. Fl. June, July. 

 E. B. xxii. 1581 ; Baxter i. 51. 



2. Opium Poppy — {Papaver somniferum.) 

 Occasionally in waste ground, but always as an escape from culti- 

 yation, more or less remote, being originally from Asia, and in Europe 

 only naturalized. Fl. July, August. Annual. 



E. B. XXX. 2145; Baxter, i. 53. 



3. Pale-eed Poppy — [Papaver Argemone.') 



In cornfields, common. Chorlton, Withington, Sale, Bowdon, 

 Prestwich. Fl. June, July. Annual. 



Curtis, ii. 330 ; E. B. ix. 643. 

 The flowers are almost as fugitive as those of the Cistus, rarely enduiing above 

 six hours. 



4. Long-headed Poppy — {Papdver duhium.) 

 Cornfields, common. Fl. June, July. Annual. 



Curtis, ii. 329 ; E. B. ix. 644. 



5. Scarlet Corn-poppy — {Papdver Rhceas.) 



Rare. Occasionally in cornfields about Prestwich, Bowdon, and 

 Sale. Plentiful near Sale Station in 1858. Fl. June, July. Annual. 



Curtis, i. 177 ; E. B. ix. 045. 



Poppies are remarkable alike for their fecundity, and for the suddenness with 

 which they appear and vanish when left to themselves. Tlie seeds vegetate with 

 freedom ouly where the soil has been recently turned over; and if a field or 

 garden in which they have been scattered is laid down to grass, or is in any way 

 hardened and compacted, they seem to lose the power of growth, the plant dis- 

 appearing almost entirely. Possessed, however, of uncommon tenacity of life, 

 directly the ground is disturbed anew, no matter how distant the interval, the 

 latent energy comes forth, and pojjpies are again in the ascendant. The surfaces 

 of railway cuttings liave in many instances been ornamented, the first season, 

 with the scarlet of the Papuver l{ho;as, the seeds of which must have been lying 

 in the earth for ages. This species is distinguished among our wild ones by the 

 remarkably rich and satiny gloss of its flaunting petals. 



