V. PAPAVER RHOEAS. 103 



secondly, because meconopsis is barbarous Greek ; 

 thirdly, and chiefly, because it is little matter 

 whether this poppy be Welsh or English ; but very 

 needful that we should observe, wherever it grows, 

 that the petals are 

 arranged in what used 

 to be, in my young 

 days, called a diamond 

 shape,* as at A,Fig. 1 o, 

 the two narrow inner 

 ones at right angles to, 

 and projecting farther 

 than, the two outside 

 broad ones ; and that 

 the two broad ones, 

 when the flower is 

 seen in profile, as at 

 B, show their margins 

 folded back, as indi- 

 cated by the thicker 

 lines, and have a pro- 



FlG. II. 



file curve, which is 



only the softening, or melting away into each 

 other, of two straight lines. Indeed, when the 

 flower is younger, and quite strong, both its profiles, 

 A and B, Fig. II, are nearly straight-sided ; and 



* The mathematical term is ' rhomb.' 



