THE 

 SCAELET POPPY. 



Papaver Rhceas. Nat. Ord., 

 Papaveracete. 



VERY one of our readers has 

 doubtless had his attention 

 attracted by this plant, the 

 brilliancy of its colouring and 

 the profusion with which it 

 grows being features that en- 

 force notice even from the 

 most superficial observers. It 

 is the most intensely brilliant 

 of all our wild plants, for 

 though the marsh marigold 

 flower, for instance, is a per- 

 fectly pure and brilliant yellow; 

 the white campion, a white of 

 spotless purity ; and the borage 

 as deep and unsullied a blue 

 as could possibly be met with or imagined 

 these colours, beautiful as they are, must 

 yield in brilliant strength and intensity to 

 the scarlet of the poppy. It has been 

 often asserted that in the midst of the immense variety 

 of colouring met with amongst our British plants we 

 have only two that bear scarlet flowers the poppy and the 

 pimpernel but we should certainly ourselves be inclined to 



