60 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 
period before you see whether your batch has borne you 
good, pure colours or no. But no trouble is too great to 
be taken with a Meconopsis. 
And at this point, with however little regard for 
proper order, I am going to talk of a genuine Poppy, 
which is in aspect exactly like a Meconopsis. Papaver 
tauricola is a very handsome Levantine, whose proper 
place is here, rather than with his closer kin, whose name 
he shares. He is incredibly like Meconopsis Wallichit in 
habit, and bears a tall fountain of orange-salmon flowers, 
no less beautiful than remarkable. I fear he is mono- 
carpous, but he is certainly hardy, for he has sailed 
through the winter on a perfectly unprotected piece of 
the rock-work, and is now making broader rosettes than 
ever, and freely emitting lateral growths, which encourage 
a faint, foolish hope that he may be perennial. 
Cathcartia villosa is a humble, but near cousin of 
Meconopsis, with very silky vine-shaped leaves and large 
golden flowers. It only grows about a foot high, and 
has most unexpectedly, I confess, proved its hardiness by 
surviving the winter as heartily as any native. One gets 
into the way of expecting Sikkim-Himalyan things to 
be capricious and miffy. The other Cathcartia, lyrata, 
I have never grown, my seed always having proved 
sterile. 
Of the Fumitories, I cannot help loving our native or 
naturalised weed, Corydalis lutea, with its dainty maiden- 
hair-like leaves, and its persistent, cheerful, yellow flowers. 
The Yellow Fumitory runs about old walls in England, 
and is quite delightful somewhere at the base of the rock- 
work, confined to a nook and well out of the way of 
doing harm. For, of course, it is an intrusive pest if you 
give it any room near choice things. Its cream-white 
variety seems rather rare, and is very attractive indeed. 
Corydalis solida I grow, but not with enthusiasm, on 
