34 PAPAVERACE^E. 



and arranged in long terminal leafy racemes. Flowers in July, 

 and throughout the remainder of summer and early autumn. 

 Native of Sikkim Himalaya. It is with some diffidence I re- 

 commend this grandest of Meconopsis as a hardy herbaceous 

 perennial. Some eighteen or t^venty years ago it was first 

 introduced into this country, and flowered at Kew, but died 

 immediately after. Once again, eight years subsequently, it was 

 grown at Kew ; and the stock raised from the imported seed 

 was considerable, and was distributed among several botanic 

 gardens in this country, a few being reserved for culture in the 

 herbaceous department at Kew. Three or four of those re- 

 served were cultivated under various treatment — in pots in a 

 cold pit, in the open ground along \\ath other Papaveraceae, and 

 in a small reserve ground attached to the herbaceous depart- 

 ment, intersected with hedges ; and here it was grown in pots 

 plunged in the soil, and also planted out — shaded, and also ex- 

 posed to the mid-day sun. The measure of success was greatest 

 in the last-mentioned circumstances, and least in the pit. The 

 plants in pots plunged in shade were by far the most vigorous, 

 and flowered beautifully ; but in every case the plants began to 

 show symptoms of decay as flowering ceased, and they ulti- 

 mately died much in the way of biennial plants when their mis- 

 sion is fulfilled, and without leaving seed by which to make a 

 fresh start the following season. I was not so fortunate as to 

 hear the nature of the result at a few places to which the sur- 

 plus plants were sent ; but having heard nothing since of so 

 interesting a plant, I am obliged to conclude that no greater 

 success attended its culture elsewhere than that just described. 

 Whether biennial or perennial, therefore, is a problem yet to be 

 solved ; but in either case it is a splendid and interesting plant. 



Papaver {Poppy). — This group is a large one, consisting 

 mainly of annual and biennial, and a few perennial species, A 

 small selection of species only is needed to embrace the best 

 and most distinct. The taller-growing species are best adapted 

 for ornamenting the back lines of mixed borders and for plant- 

 ing among shrubs to give colour, in which latter position they 

 produce a very fine eflect. The dwarfer species are suitable 

 and elegant ornaments for rockwork, or for the front lines of 

 mixed borders in moderate shade — that is, their beauties are 

 longer enjoyable in a somewhat shady position than in one 

 fully exposed to the sun. They are propagated by division, 

 and by seeds in spring. 



P. alpinum {Alpine Poppy). — This is a beautiful dwarf- 

 growing species, producing handsome pinnately-divided leaves 

 somewhat glaucous, and a profusion of leafless, roughly hairy 



