200 The Thistle Poppies. 



three-fourths times as long as the second, tapering gradually to the 

 tip, the apical portion not bristle-like. Proboscis reaches apex of 

 second antennal joint. Pile and tomentum of occiput, thorax and 

 scutellum yellowish- white, bristles of the two latter black. Tomen- 

 tum of abdomen white, that at the base yellowish, a transverse 

 spot of black tomentum each side of the middle on bases of the sec- 

 ond, third and fourth segments; tomentum of venter, femora and 

 tibiae white, that on front side of anterior and middle femora partly 

 black; spines of tibiae black; hind femora in the male each with three 

 stout black bristles on the under side near the base; tomentum of 

 tarsi black. Wings wholly hyaline, vein at apex of discal cell evenly 

 curved and destitute of a stump of a vein; small crossvein at last 

 third of the discal cell. Stalk of halteres yellowish-brown, the knob 

 sulphur-yellow. Length, 5 to 11 mm. San Diego county, Cal- 

 ifornia. 6 male and 11 female specimens, in May. 



D. W. Coquillett. 



THE THISTLE POPPIES. 



(From the American Garden, xii. 54.) 



The Papaveraeeae or Poppy family furnishes many beautiful 

 flowers for us to cultivate and admire. The order includes near 

 twenty genera, of which, nine or ten are represented in California. 

 Among these genera is Argemone, a genus of some six or eight 

 species of free-flowering border plants, with large, showy, white or 

 yellow short -pedicelled flowers. They are stout, glaucescent hardy 

 annuals, with sinuately pinnatified, prickly-toothed leaves, from 

 which they have become known as thistle-poppies. 



Argemone grandiflora is described as 'growing two feet in 

 height, and producing numerous large white flowers.' 



Argemone Mexicana, a native of Texas and Mexico, grows to 

 about the same height, and produces conspicuous yellow flowers in 

 profusion. As a weed, this plant 'has spread to almost all warm 

 countries,' but I believe it has not as yet been recorded from Cali- 

 fornia. The leaves are blotched with white and less hispid than in 

 the folio wing species. 



Argemone hispida, the chicalote or thistle poppy of Southern 

 California, in the beauty of its flowers almost rivals the magnificent 

 Romneya Coulteri. It forms an erect branching bush, one to three 

 feet or more in height, producing a profusion of its large, pure white 

 flowers, closely set among pale green, bristly-armed leaves. 



The large white flowers render it very conspicuous on a lawn, 

 by day or night, but the delicate texture of its petals, and unpleas- 



