POPPY FAMILY 



Best of all, this gay and gallant creature blooms in the spring, 

 bearing onward from the rows of daffodils and beds of tulips 

 the warm glow of color. 



In May great flower stalks rise from a tuft of leaves, crowned 

 with heavy buds that increase in size, till some morning the thick, 



hairy calyx breaks, and 

 the great scarlet petals 

 shake themselves free. 

 The great petals are 

 splashed near the base 

 with broad, irregular 

 spots of black-purple. 

 Dominating the flower, 

 covered and crowned 

 with purple rays 

 softened with lilac, 

 stands the seed pod 

 an inch high and more 

 than an inch across. 

 Around this splendid 

 central globe are the 

 stamens, row upon 

 row, circle within circle bearing anthers of a splendid dusky- 

 purple, each held upon a slender filament of deeper-purple. 



Although in the t)fpe the flower is scarlet, a considerable class of 

 hybrids has been produced which extend the color range through 

 red to orange and from salmon to pale-pink. When once the 

 color of a primitive is broken, one cannot predict what changes 

 may occur. All the variants are beautiful, but they do not tran- 

 scend the type. 



The plant is perfectly hardy, rarely fails to blossom generously, 

 and will flourish with little care. 



Oriental Poppy. Papavcr orientate 



196 



