WILLOW-HERB 21 



considering. There is, of course, no near relationship between 

 the Willow and the Willow-Herb. A number of smaller species 

 of Willow-Herb occur in Britain. While the general construction 

 of flower, fruit, and seed is similar, differences occur in the mode of 

 pollination. Some species with relatively inconspicuous flowers 

 do not prevent self-fertilisation by the maturing of the stamens 

 and stigma at different times, and in some cases the flowers are 

 regularly self-pollinated. 



THE COMMON RED POPPY (Papaver Rhceas, L.) 



Unlike most of the plants described here, the Red Poppy, 

 familiar to everyone in our cornfields and waste land, is an annual 

 plant. It grows from seed, attains its full size, flowers, ripens its 

 fruit and sheds its seeds in one season. The plants then die, and 

 a new generation springs up next year from the seeds left in the 

 soil. Many of the weeds of cultivated land will be found to be 

 annual plants, only these being able to get a footing in the soil 

 which is yearly turned over by the plough. 



If a flowering plant of the Poppy is examined it will be found 

 to have a stout tapering main root bearing lateral branches. 

 At the base of the stem are a number of leaves crowded closely 

 together, and above this region the stem has elongated internodes, 

 and bears at each node a single foliage-leaf. Still further up the 

 leaves have no stalks, and differ in shape from those below, and the 

 main stem continues into the long bare flower-stalk ending in a 

 flower. Small plants may be unbranched, but a bud is formed 

 in the axil of each leaf and, while many remain undeveloped, 

 branching occurs in larger plants. The lateral shoots bear only 

 two reduced leaves or bracts, and like the main shoot end in 

 flowers. 



The stem, which tapers from below upwards, is green, often 

 with a purple tinge at the base. It bears scattered white hairs 

 projecting from the surface. The leaves have a widened leaf- 

 base, a narrowly winged leaf-stalk, grooved above, and a deeply 

 divided but not compound leaf-blade. The leaf-stalk passes 

 gradually into the blade, the central region continuing as the 

 midrib, while the green margins widen out. The margins of the 



