PAPAVERACEAE 57 



jungle of Meconopsis camhrica, it never gives you the 

 heart-breaking trouble of one single runner of Gout-weed 

 or Pig-nut — may their names for ever be accursed ! 

 Meconopsis cambrica has a soft orange-coloured form, too, 

 whose colour is singularly rare and beautiful ; and, be- 

 sides, he stands among the few Alpine plants possessing 

 an indispensable double variety. I detest doubles as a 

 rule, but in candour I must own that the double yellow 

 Welsh Poppy is a fine thing ; as for the double fire- 

 coloured form, well, there is nothing to beat the ferocious 

 splendour of it anywhere in the garden, loose puffs of 

 flower, shading from clear yellow to the most furious ver- 

 milion orange, that is Meconopsis cambrica aurantiaca plena, 

 a plant so splendid as to make it worth every one's while to 

 learn his truly awe-inspiring list of names. And, add to 

 all this, that these varieties of the Welsh Poppy seed— at 

 least here — abundantly, come almost always faithful to 

 their parents, and thrive no whit less hilariously than the 

 common ancestor, except, indeed, that they make stouter 

 bushes, and blossom in far greater profusion, their blooms 

 continuing right through the summer, with a second 

 burst in autumn. 



Meconopsis aculeata is the good wine that needs no 

 bush to those that have seen him at Kew. I doubt if 

 anything more beautiful exists anywhere, or can exist. 

 The leaves are handsome, cordate, more or less five-lobed, 

 brownish with hairs, and long prickle-like bristles. The 

 flowers are carried in a pyramid, perhaps a foot high, and 

 are large, more or less nodding, and, at the best, of an 

 iridescent blue-violet, glistening like silk. The plant is 

 a North-West Indian, and all these Himalyan and 

 mountain species are rather bad customers to tackle. It 

 is said that they inhabit the mist-zone of the ranges, and 

 therefore enjoy conditions extraordinarily difficult to 

 reproduce in England. 



