82 PROSERPINA. 



and it never tells me whether one pair of petals 



is always smaller than the other, or not. Only I 



see it says the corolla has four petals. Perhaps 



a celandine may be a double poppy, and have eight. 



I know they're tiresome irregular things, and I 



mustn't be stopped by them ;* — at any rate, my 



Roman poppy knew what it was about, and had 



its two couples of leaves in clear subordination, of 



which at the time I went on to inquire farther, as 



follows. 



13. The next point is, what shape are the petals 



of? And that is easier asked than answered ; for 



when you pull them off, you find they won't lie 



flat, by any means, but are each of them cups, or 



rather shells, themselves; and that it requires as 



much conchology as would describe a cockle, before 



you can properly give account of a single poppy 



leaf. Or of a single any leaf — for all leaves are 



either shells, or boats, (or solid, if not hollow, 



masses,) and cannot be represented in flat outline. 



But, laying these as flat as they will lie on a 



sheet of paper, you will find the piece they hide 



of the paper they lie on can be drawn ; giving 



* Just in time, finding a heap of gold under an oak tree some 

 thousand years old, near Arundel, I've made them out : Eight, 

 divided by three ; that is to say, three couples of petals, with two 

 odd little ones inserted for form's sake. No wonder I couldn't 

 decipher them by memory. 



