AND ORNAMENTAL TREATMENT. 57 



employed. This plant is one of our commoner species, being generally abundant throughout the 

 country in meadows and on hedge-banks. It flowers from June to September, its brilliant yellow 

 blossoms rendering it then rather conspicuous. The flowers are somewhat variable ; out of one 

 hundred blossoms, picked as a test of this, eighty had the divisions of corolla and calyx in fives, 

 the remaining twenty in sixes. 



The central design upon plate XL. is derived from the Thorn Apple, Datura Stramonium, 

 a rather scarce plant. It is not truly indigenous, having been introduced in the reign of 

 Elizabeth. It has, however, become quite acclimatised, and may be found from time to time 

 growing on rubbish heaps, its favourite place, or by the roadside. The flowers, large, white, and 

 very ornamental in appearance, are succeeded by the prickly fruit, an equally suitable feature 

 for art-treatment. The plant is a powerful narcotic. 



The design, fig. 322, has been suggested by the graceful pinnate leaves of the common 

 Scarlet Poppy, or Corn Rose, Papavar Rhceas. The brilliant scarlet of the flowers as they grow 

 amongst the ripening corn must have struck all our readers, so that we need not pause to describe 

 a plant so familiar. The flowers are very fragile, withering and shattering their petals very soon 

 after being gathered : — 



" Pleasures are like Poppies spread, 

 You seize the flower, its bloom is shed," 



The specific name, Rhceas, alludes to this characteristic, being derived from the Greek word 

 rkeo, I fall or pass away ; the generic name being from papa, thick milk, in allusion to the juice 

 that exudes from the plant when the stems are broken across. 



It may very possibly happen that some special necessity for a design from a given plant 

 may arise at a time when the natural plant cannot be procured, or on the other hand, some plant 

 may strike the eye on account of some suggestive feature in it, though no immediate opportunity 

 for its utilisation in an ornamental composition may present itself To meet either case, the habit of 

 sketching is a good one ; it impresses the characteristic features of the plant on the mind in a way 

 that nothing else can do, and the sketch, when finished, may, after being stored away months or 

 years, prove some day the very thing required. Book illustrations, even when perfectly reliable, 

 are often not altogether suited to the designer's requirements, as the details of growth are not 

 sufficiently defined, nor given with that geometric exactitude that is generally desirable. It will be 

 well on completing the drawing to wash the parts over with flat tints of the local colour, while, if 

 time permits, a small piece may be more carefully painted with due regard to light and shade. 

 Some plants dry fairly well, sufficiently well to render them of service for consultation, and very 

 accurate representations of some details of plants may be obtained by various processes of nature 

 printing. 



In drying plants for reference, the following points must be observed : — The specimens 

 must be as complete as possible ; the root, stem, the various forms of leaves and bracts, the 

 blossoms and fruit, should all be preserved. On bringing them home they must be laid between 

 sheets of coarse, stout, and absorbent paper (common blotting paper is scarcely stout enough), and 

 then pressed by a heavy weight. The drying paper must be frequently changed, as the more 

 rapidly the drying is accomplished, the greater the likelihood of a successful result ; if the paper is 

 well heated it is an advantage, as the drying is more speedily effected, there is less likelihood of 

 mould developing, and the colours are better preserved. When the drying has been satisfactorily 

 performed the specimens must be mounted, or they will speedily, from their dry and fragile nature, 

 suffer injury. Good white cartridge-paper is the most suitable material, as it is sufficiently 

 substantial to bear a good deal of the handling and turning over that are inevitable if the plants 

 are referred to at all. It is well, as affording greater facility In reference, to have all the sheets of 

 uniform size ; that known as quarter-imperial is very convenient. Ordinary gum or paste may be 

 used in mounting; gum has an unpleasant shininess; paste, If a little corrosive sublimate (a dangerous 

 poison) be added to it, is perhaps the best to use. Paste, thus medicated, does not get mouldy, 

 while it also largely aids in preserving the specimens from the attacks of insects. Ferns, grasses, 

 mosses and plants of a firm and rigid nature, are best suited for the student's herbarium, as they 

 lose but little of their natural appearance and dry readily. Plants of a succulent nature, like 

 the Stone-crop, suffer a good deal. We have not gone into many minor details that a botanist 

 in forming such a collection would require to attend to, but the art-student, being less exacting in 

 his requirements, will, we trust, find that, after a little personal experience of his own, our 

 explanation of the course to be adopted will suffice. 



Impressions of plants may be obtained, as we have said, by various methods of nature 

 printing. Numerous recipes are given for accomplishing this ; some we have succeeded in gaining 

 good results by ; others, owing to the blundering of the originator or of his disciple, we have 



