120 2Tf)e CKarlren'* 



easier things to grow ; they demand a partially 

 shaded position, and peat freely sprinkled with 

 silver sand. 



A host of Iceland poppies (Papaver nudi- 

 caule) has been called forth by the spring sun- 

 shine. They are, of all familiar poppyworts, the 

 most beautiful, gracefully poised on tall scapes 

 that nod and toss and flutter with every passing 

 breeze. It is scarcely of these that Burns says : 



Pleasures are like poppies spread ; 

 You seize the flower, the bloom is shed. 



Or Keats : 



At a touch, sweet pleasure melteth, 

 Like to poppies when rain pelteth. 



They are less fugacious than most of their wide- 

 spread family, and there is always a fresh blos- 

 som to supply the one which has passed. The 

 foliage is more delicate than that of any other 

 species I am acquainted with, unless it be its 

 little relative, the Alpine poppy (P. Alpmutri). 

 Meconopsis Cambrica, the Welsh vvildling, some- 

 what resembles it, though it is coarser, more 

 fugitive, and not nearly so floriferous. This 

 does best in damp, sandy soil near water. As 

 it is apt to die off the second year on dry soils, 

 it is well to raise it from seed, which germinates 

 readily. Meconopsis Nepalensts, the finest of 



