PAPAVERACEAE 57 
jungle of Meconopsis cambrica, it never gives you the 
heart-breaking trouble of one single runner of Gout-weed 
or Pig-nut—may their names for ever be accursed ! 
Meconopsis cambrica has a soft orange-coloured form, too, 
whose colour is singularly rare and beautiful; and, be- 
sides, he stands among the few Alpine plants possessing 
an indispensable double variety. I detest doubles as a 
rule, but in candour I must own that the double yellow 
Welsh Poppy is a fine thing; as for the double fire- 
coloured form, well, there is nothing to beat the ferocious 
splendour of it anywhere in the garden, loose puffs of 
flower, shading from clear yellow to the most furious ver- 
milion orange, that is Meconopsis cambrica aurantiaca plena, 
a plant so splendid as to make it worth every one’s while to 
learn his truly awe-inspiring list of names. And, add to 
all this, that these varieties of the Welsh Poppy seed—at 
least here—abundantly, come almost always faithful to 
their parents, and thrive no whit less hilariously than the 
common ancestor, except, indeed, that they make stouter 
bushes, and blossom in far greater profusion, their blooms 
continuing right through the summer, with a second 
burst in autumn. 
Meconopsis aculeata is the good wine that needs no 
bush to those that have seen him at Kew. I doubt if 
anything more beautiful exists anywhere, or can exist. 
The leaves are handsome, cordate, more or less five-lobed, 
brownish with hairs, and long prickle-like bristles. ‘The 
flowers are carried in a pyramid, perhaps a foot high, and 
are large, more or less nodding, and, at the best, of an 
iridescent blue-violet, glistening like silk. ‘The plant is 
a North-West Indian, and all these Himdélyan and 
mountain species are rather bad customers to tackle. It 
is said that they inhabit the mist-zone of the ranges, and 
therefore enjoy conditions extraordinarily difficult to 
reproduce in England. 
