70 PROSERPINA. 



9. Returning to Lindley, and working the matter farther 

 out with his help, I think this definition might stand : "A 

 poppy is a flower which has either four or six petals, and two 

 or more treasuries, united into one ; containing a milky, stupe- 

 fying fluid in its stalks and leaves, and always throwing away 

 its calyx when it blossoms." 



And indeed, every flower which unites all these characters, 

 we shall, in the Oxford schools, call ' poppy,' and ' Papaver ; ' 

 but when I get fairly into work, I hope to fix my definitions 

 into more strict terms. For I wish all my pupils to form the 

 habit of asking, of every plant, these following four questions, 

 in order, corresponding to the subject of these opening chap- 

 ters, namely, " What root has it ? what leaf ? what flower ? 

 and what stem ? " And, in this definition of poppies, nothing 

 whatever is said about the root ; and not only I don't know 

 myself what a poppy root is like, but in all Sowerby's poppy 

 section, I find no word whatever about that matter. 



10. Leaving, however, for the present, the root unthought 

 of, and contenting myself with Dr. Lindley's characteristics, I 

 shall place, at the head of the whole group, our common 

 European wild poppy, Papaver Khoeas, and, with this, arrange 

 the nine following other flowers thus, opposite. 



I must be content at present with determining the Latin 

 names for the Oxford schools ; the English ones I shall give 

 as they chance to occur to me, in Gerarde and the classical 

 poets who wrote before the English revolution. When no 

 satisfactory name is to be found, I must try to invent one ; 

 as, for instance, just now, I don't like Gerard's ' Corn-rose ' 

 for Papaver Rhoeas, and must coin another ; but this can't be 

 done by thinking : it will come into my head some day, by 

 chance. I might try at it straightforwardly for a week to- 

 gether, and not do it. 



The Latin names must be fixed at once, somehow ; and 

 therefore I do the best I can, keeping as much respect for the 

 old nomenclature as possible, though this involves the illogical 

 practice of giving the epithet sometimes from the flower, 

 (violaceum, cruciforme), and sometimes from the seed vessel, 

 (elatum, echinosum, corniculatum). Guarding this distinc- 



~ LIBRARY 



