THE PEICKLY- 

 HEADED POPPY. 



Papaver Argemone. Nat. Ord., 

 Papaveraeece. 



HE common scarlet poppy we 

 have already figured, and the 

 subject of the present illustra- 

 tion, though one of our com- 

 mon British poppies, affords a 

 marked contrast to that fine 

 species. The prickly -headed 

 poppy is the weakest in growth, 

 and ordinarily the smallest of 

 all our poppies. Though not 

 unfrequently met with in corn- 

 fields and on waste ground, 

 it is scarcely so common as the 

 Papaver Rhesus, while it does 

 not by any means force our at- 

 tention to it by its brilliancy, 

 as that species does. The 

 prickly-headed poppy is an 

 annual. The foliage is scanty, the leaves much simpler 

 in form than in the common species, the segments into 

 which they are cut being few in number. The flowers 

 have four petals, and these, from their great length in 

 proportion to their breadth, give the flower a very decided 



