MECONOPSIS. 
from the base, and the leaves narrow _and almost entirely uncut or 
toothed at the edge; with other sub-species :— WM. horridula, a fluctu- 
ating development with only solitary basal\scapes developed instead 
of a central stem, a condition not found in the other two Meconopsids 
of this kinship; M. rudis and M. Pratiw, differentiated at a glance by 
the rich yellow anthers of the former and the cream-white ones of the 
latter. As for M. sinuata “latifolia” of catalogues, this proves in 
reality a quite distinct and very magnificent true species, MW. latifolia ; 
for which see Appendix. The whole group is still obscure. 
M. Souliet. See M. integrifolia. : 
M. superba.—This poor thing, again, was M. « nepalensis ” of Flora 
and Sylva, iii., whereas it really deserves a name of its own, and this 
particular name too, being a most stately species of 2 yards high, in 
the line of M. Wallichii, and clothed all over in a dense soft coat of - 
grey down, as well as a vesture of soft spreading hairs. It is in all 
respects like M. paniculata, but is taller and larger in every part, and 
has much larger flowers too, which break away from the family 
traditions in being pure white instead of yellow, while the leaves would 
also serve to differentiate it from the rest, for they are only lobed into 
bays with definite teeth at the edge. It is on the high alpine meadows 
of Bhotan that it makes its superb spouting spire of snowy blossom. 
M. torquata differs in little from M. discigera, except in having 
closer-set spikes of flowers, and these upheld on shorter foot-stalks. 
This spike is some 12 inches high, dense with blooms in shades of pale 
scarlet. The foliage in this curious group is much the same as that 
of M. grandis on a smaller scale, while their inflorescence is rather 
that of M. aculeata, but more crowded and compressed, so as to make 
a spike and not a spray, not loose and tall and stately as in the group 
of M. Wallichui, but sturdy and close-set and impressive. Add to this, 
that the remains of much old foliage about the thickened root-stocks 
gives good hope that these Meconopsids may prove sound perennials 
when they have at last been introduced from the heights of Western 
Sikkim and Southern Tibet and the Alps that look down on Lhasa 
the Holy. 
M. Wallichii closes the list—a plant superb among the best, whether 
you have its noble rosettes of feather-lobed leaves all russet in their 
tawny fur, and nursing glistering globules of rain on an autumn morn- 
ing; or, in July next year, a forest of its gracious 4-foot spires of 
ample blossom in the clearest dawn-tones of azure. At least, if you 
be lucky ; if you are not, I. Wallichii has the horrible habit of varying 
from seed into a hundred dismal and dirt-coloured tones of slate or 
claret, till many are the hapless gardeners who look at the plant they 
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