22 LETTER I. 



round ; but like that plant it contains only one 

 cavity. The reason why the poppy head is so thick, 

 is, that it is formed out of as many carpels grown 

 together, as there are stigmas ; in the naked-stalked 

 Poppy there are seven ; in the Opium Poppy 

 (Papaver somniferum) there are a great many ; in 

 others more and in others less : but in the Horned 

 Poppy the fruit is formed of only two carpels grown 

 together, which will at once explain why the fruit is 

 so narrow\ 



Celandine (Chelidonium majus), a pale green cut- 

 leaved plant, with little yellow flowers, found in groves 

 and in shady lanes, or in churchyards, by no means 

 uncommonly, is another plant belonging to the 

 Poppy tribe. Its milk is of an orange colour, and has 

 a nauseous taste ; its fruit is a long pod constructed 

 like that of the Horned Poppy, but when it is ripe 

 dropping into two pieces called valves. 



The Argemone or Prickly Poppy^ and the Esch- 

 scholtzia, so very remarkable for its finely cut 

 bluish leaves, and bright yellow flowers, are also of 

 this natural order. In the Eschscholtzia a circum- 

 stance happens which you should not omit to note, 

 because it seems to explain in other plants several 

 things which appear at first sight very puzzling. 

 The flower of this species before it expands is enclosed 

 in a taper-pointed green sheath, shaped like a hutkin, 

 which is pushed off" by degrees as the petals unfold, 

 and at last drops to the ground. What is this singular 

 part, which is so unlike any thing in the plants 

 hitherto examined ? it is the calvx, which, like that 



