ON SOME INTERESTING ALIENS 



centuries, and has been greatly improved by the 

 European growers, the varieties developed being of 

 almost every shade of color, some flowers being 

 single and others double. 



From time to time charming varieties have been 

 sent out in recent years, including an interesting 

 single one known as the Miss Sherwood, a variety 

 having blossoms with a white center and crim- 

 son edge, the petals being beautifully fringed. 



There are other varieties known as Paeonia 

 and Carnation Flower poppies that are double and 

 are exceedingly handsome in color. 



The Oriental poppy has very large flowers, 

 always crimson with shadings of scarlet in color 

 in a state of nature, and in almost all cultivated 

 varieties the color being unusually well fixed. 

 The plant is a perennial with rough, hairy leaves. 

 The flowers are borne on single stems, instead of 

 branching from a main stalk as in the opium and 

 most other poppies. The Oriental species has 

 probably not been under cultivation as long as the 

 other, but many varieties have been developed, 

 some of them semi-double, and the colors have 

 been modified so that there are dull white, scar- 

 let, and yellowish varieties, as well as the more 

 usual crimson. 



These varieties, however, seem not to be well 

 fixed they do not come true from the seed and 



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