34 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 



receptacle with a dilated margin, which has been, or might 

 be, copied in many works of art. The seed-vessel is a long 

 striated pod, altogether differing in appearance from the 

 globular or urn -shaped pod of a true poppy, and it opens 

 by two valves. For a study of plant structure this is a 

 cajjital subject, and the young botanist will do well to 

 grow a few tufts of Eschscholtzias in the garden, and give 

 close heed to them in all their stages from the cradle to 

 the grave. 



The Eschscholtzias are classed as annuals, and may be 

 grown as such, because they flower the first season if sown 

 in February or March, or still better in the autumn, as 

 advised in the paper on the Virginian stock. But they 

 are true perennials, with persistent fleshy roots, and have 

 but to be left alone to last many years. When they 

 have become established in a garden it is not an easy 

 matter to get rid of them, for they sow their seeds and 

 spread as wildings, and as summer advances we see their 

 ga^f■ flowers in all sorts of odd places where the plants have 

 found suitable nooks for themselves, and have escaped the 

 scratch of the weed-exterminating hoe of the gardener. In 

 such cases what is to be done ? Well, there is an easy 

 way out of every difliculty, and the only difiieulty is to 

 know the way. In this case it consists in leaving the 

 plants alone, for weeds they may be, and none the worse 

 for that — why cut short their bright career when they do 

 not even so much as cry, " Please, please give me a drop 

 of water?" 



The species and varieties of Eschscholtzias in cultiva- 

 tion are all worth growing, and do not amount to many. 

 E. Ciilifornica produces flowers of a bright yellow colour, 

 the petals blotched at the base with orange. E. croi'i'ii 



