66 



PROSERPINA. 



tion of a divine law of perfection to which the one more con- 

 forms than the other. 



5. Thus, for instance. That it should ever have been an 



open question with 

 me whether a pop- 

 py had always two 

 of its petals less 

 than the other two, 

 depended wholly 

 on the hurry and 

 imperfection with 

 which the poppy 

 carries out its plan. 



A \ ^^3^i7/m^^^ / It never would have 



occurred to me to 

 doubt whether an 

 iris had three of its 

 leaves smaller than 

 the other three, be- 

 cause an iris always 

 completes itself to 

 its own ideal. 

 Nevertheless, on 

 examining various 

 poppies, as I walk- 

 ed, this summer, up 

 and down the hills 

 between Sheffield 

 and Wakefield, I 

 find the subordina- 

 tion of the upper 

 and lower petals 

 entirely necessary 

 and normal ; and 

 that the result of it is to give two distinct profiles to the 

 poppy cup, the difference between which, however, we shall 

 see better in the yellow Welsh poppy, at present called 

 Meconopsis Cambrica ; but which, in the Oxford schools, 



FIG. 10. 



