60 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 



period before you see whether your batch has borne you 

 good, pure colours or no. But no trouble is too great to 

 be taken with a Meconopsis. 



And at this point, with however little regard for 

 proper order, I am going to talk of a genuine Poppy, 

 which is in aspect exactly like a Meconopsis. Papaver 

 tauricola is a very handsome Levantine, whose proper 

 place is here, rather than with his closer kin, whose name 

 he shares. He is incredibly like Meconopsis WaUichii in 

 habit, and bears a tall fountain of orange-salmon flowers, 

 no less beautiful than remarkable. I fear he is mono- 

 carpous, but he is certainly hardy, for he has sailed 

 through the winter on a perfectly unprotected piece of 

 the rock-work, and is now making broader rosettes than 

 ever, and freely emitting lateral growths, which encourage 

 a faint, foolish hope that he may be perennial. 



Cathcartia villosa is a humble, but near cousin of 

 Meconopsis, with very silky vine-shaped leaves and large 

 golden flowers. It only grows about a foot high, and 

 has most unexpectedly, I confess, proved its hardiness by 

 surviving the winter as heartily as any native. One gets 

 into the way of expecting Sikkim-Himalyan things to 

 be capi'icious and mifFy. The other Cathcartia, lyrata, 

 I have never grown, my seed always having proved 

 sterile. 



Of the Fumitories, I cannot help loving our native or 

 naturalised weed, Corydalis lutea, with its dainty maiden- 

 hair-like leaves, and its persistent, cheerful, yellow flowers. 

 The Yellow Fumitory runs about old walls in England, 

 and is quite delightful somewhere at the base of the rock- 

 work, confined to a nook and well out of the way of 

 doing harm. For, of course, it is an intrusive pest if you 

 give it any room near choice things. Its cream-white 

 variety seems rather rare, and is very attractive indeed. 

 Corydalis solida I grow, but not with enthusiasm, on 



