MEC0N0PSI8 WALLICHII. 25 



curious structure of their fruit, which well merits examination ; both require only 

 the ordinary treatment of hardy annuals. 



The handsome Ifeconopsis, figured in our plate, is remarkable as being one of 

 the very few plants, if not the only one, of the Order, with blue flowers. It was 

 discovered in the Sikkim Himalaya, by Dr. J. D. Hooker, who sent seeds to the 

 Eoyal Gardens, which produced flowering plants in June, 1852. The plant attains 

 the height of two and-a-half to three feet, and is everywhere of a pale, glaucous 

 green, covered with long reddish bristle-like hairs. The root leaves are very large, 

 often twelve to eighteen inches long, or more, stalked, and much lobed, and cut. 

 The stem-leaves are small, and without stalks. The flowers are rather numerously 

 produced from the axils of the upper stem-leaves, on short drooping peduncles, and 

 are of some size ; the ring of yellow stamens round the seed-vessel contrasts 

 charmingly with the pale blue colour of the petals. The seed-vessel is more elongated 

 than in the true Poppies, and is densely clothed with erect bristle -bike hairs or 

 setce ; the stigmas, as we have already remarked, are elevated on a thick cylindrical 

 style, as long as the ovaiy, as shown in our plate. 



The mode in which the capsule of the Poppies opens, viz. by pores or valves 

 immediately beneath the disk-like stigmas, is no doubt familiar to most of our 

 readers. In the Ifeconopsis WallicMi, and the other species of this genus, the 

 capsule also opens, when ripe, by six or seven valves at the top of the style, which 

 appears to be rather a mere elongation of the ovary, than what is generally under- 

 stood to be a true style. The numerous seeds are arranged as in Papaver, or thin 

 membranaceous ridges, radiating from the inner walls of the capsule. 



This veiy ornamental plant has been too short a time in cultivation in this country 

 to authorise us to speak with confidence of its hardiness, especially as the last 

 winter was comparatively mild. Judging, however, from the locality in which it 

 was found, there is scarcely a doubt that it will prove quite hardy, and in that 

 case it will take a high rank among our herbaceous perennials. At present it is, we 

 believe, confined to the collection at Kew; but will doubtless bo procurable, through 

 the trade, in the course of another season. 



The genus contains a few other species, one of them, the If. Cambrica, being 

 indigenous to this country. Two others, If. crassifolia and If. heterophylla, both 

 with orange-coloured flowers, are natives of California ; and in addition to the 

 species now figured, two others have been found in Northern India. One of these, 

 the If. 7iepalensis,-mth. yellow flowers, is in the possession of Mr. Stark, Nurseryman, 

 Edinburgh, who has also a considerable number of the rarer herbaceous plants. 



The name of this genus is derived from mckon, the Greek term for a poppy, and 

 opsis, like, in allusion to the close resemblance between the two genera. 



The narcotic properties of the plants of the Order Papaveracea arc too well known 

 to require noticing. It may, however, be worth while pointing out the singular 



