WATEE LILIES POPPIES. 23 



the beautiful white Water Lily, and by its side the somewhat 

 less attractive yellow one. I exclaimed at the sight of them, 

 and said how long I had wished for them ; then I began to aid 

 in spreading the cloth for our entertainment. Turning to the 

 lake again I was terrified to behold a young cousin standing 

 up to his hips in water, and coaxing the Lilies towards him 

 with a long stick. They often eluded him, for their stalks, six 

 or eight feet long, acted as cables, and the flowers ducked 

 under water as he tried to draw them, and reappeared at a 

 greater distance from him, as if they were endowed both with 

 locomotion and reason. But he succeeded at last, and I be- 

 came the proud possessor of a handful of Lilies, with their 

 suitable accompaniment of broad floating leaves (Nymphsea 

 alba, Plate II., fig. 3 ; Nuphar liitea, fig. 4). Edward has 

 beautiful specimens from the Avon, near Warwick, and Fanny 

 from the neighbourhood of Clevedon. 



The superb Victoria Eegia, which has justly attracted so 

 much attention in the hothouse at Eew, is a member of this 

 family. Its flower resembles that of our white Lily, except 

 in being larger and tinged with pink, and its leaves are so 

 large that a child may safely stand on one of them. 



The third order is that of the POPPYWOETS, the distinguish- 

 ing features of which are a calyx of two sepals, which fall 

 off soon after the flower opens, numerous stamens, and 

 milky juice : they have generally four petals. The familiar 

 red Poppy, at once the ornament and bane of corn fields, is 

 well known to us all. It is difficult to say whether its 

 effect is most beautiful among the green or the ripe corn. 

 The seed-vessel is round and black, and divided into cham- 

 bers ; the stamens are purplish-black, and the leaves are 

 deeply cut, so as to be divided into sharp segments. It is 

 the fashion in general to turn a moral lesson to the disad- 

 vantage of Poppies, regarding them as emblems of vanity 

 and worldliness ; but I would look on them in a more kindly 

 light, as examples of the fact that beauty is present every- 



