PAP AVER RHOEAS. 69 



7. In the first place, then, I mean to call every flower either 

 one thing or another, and not an ' aceous ' thing, only half some- 

 thing or half another. I mean to call this plant now in my 

 hand, either a poppy or not a poppy ; but not poppaceous. 

 And this other, either a thistle or not a thistle ; but not thistla- 

 ceous. And this other, either a nettle or not a nettle ; but 

 not nettlaceous. I know it will be very difficult to carry out 

 this principle when tribes of plants are much extended and 

 varied in type : I shall persist in it, however, as far as possi- 

 ble ; and when plants change so much that one cannot with 

 any conscience call them by their family name any more, I 

 shall put them aside somewhere among families of poor rela- 

 tions, not to be minded for the present, until we are well ac- 

 quainted with the better bred circles. I don't know, for in- 

 stance, whether I shall call the Burnet ' Grass-rose/ or put it 

 out of court for having no petals ; but it certainly shall not 

 be called rosaceous ; and my first point will be to make sure 

 of my pupils having a clear idea of the central and unques- 

 tionable forms of thistle, grass, or rose, and assigning to them 

 pure Latin, and pretty English, names, classical, if possible? 

 and at least intelligible and decorous. 



8. I return to our present special question, then, What is a 

 poppy ? and return also to a book I gave away long ago, and 

 have just begged back again, Dr. Lindley's Ladies' Botany. 

 For without at all looking upon ladies as inferior beings, I 

 dimly hope that what Dr. Lindley considers likely to be intel- 

 ligible to them, may be also clear to their very humble servant. 



The poppies, I find, (page 19, vol. i.) differ from crowfeet 

 in being of a stupefying instead of a burning nature, and in 

 generally having two sepals, and twice two petals, "but as some 

 poppies have three sepals, and twice three petals, the num- 

 ber of these parts is not sufficiently constant to form an 

 essential mark." Yes, I know that, for I found a superb six- 

 petaled poppy, spotted like a cistus, the other day in a friend's 

 garden. But then, what makes it a poppy still ? That it is 

 of a stupefying nature, and itself so stupid that it does not 

 know how many petals it should have, is surely not enough 

 distinction ? 



