104 PROSERPINA. 



always, be it young or old, one broader than the 

 other, so as to give the flower, seen from above, the 

 shape of a contracted cross, or crosslet. 



6. Now I find no notice of this flower in Gerarde ; 

 and in Sowerby, out of eighteen lines of closely 

 printed descriptive text, no notice of its crosslet form, 

 while the petals are only stated to be " roundish- 

 concave," terms equally applicable to at least one- 

 half of all flower petals in the world. The leaves 

 are said to be very deeply pinnately partite ; but 

 drawn — as neither pinnate nor partite ! 



And this is your modern cheap science, in ten 

 volumes. Now I haven't a quiet moment to spare 

 for drawing this morning ; but I merely give the 

 main relations of the petals, A, and blot in the 

 wrinkles of one of the lower ones, B, Fig. 1 2 ; and 

 yet in this rude sketch you will feel, I believe, 

 there is something specific which could not belong 

 to any other flower. But all proper description is 

 impossible without careful profiles of each petal 

 laterally and across it. Which I may not find time 

 to draw for any poppy whatever, because they none 

 of them have well-becomingness enough to make 

 it worth my while, being all more or less weedy, 

 and ungracious, and mingled of good and evil. 

 Whereupon rises before me, ghostly and untenable, 

 the general question, ' What is a weed ? ' and, 



