THE YOUNG NATURALIST 



247 



poppy "fantastic extravagance/' and 

 the white poppy " sleep, oblivion/' 

 The poppy is not a favourite flower 

 with the poets. Shakspere only men- 

 tions it once, when the deceitful lago 

 gloating over the insiduous workings 

 of that jealousy which his cunning 

 treachery has instilled into the bosom 

 of the unsuspecting Moor, says — 



" Look, where he comes ! not poppy nor 



mandragora, 

 Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, 

 Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet 



sleep 



Which thou ow'dst yesterday." 



Spenser indicates its obnoxious charac- 

 ter by placing it in the garden of 

 Prosperina — 



" There mournful cypress grew in greatest 

 store, 



And trees of bitter gall, and heben sad, 

 Dead sleeping poppy, and black hellebore." 



And yet it has not escaped the charm- 

 ing influence of Cupid as a divination 

 flower. — 



" By a prophetic poppy-leaf I found 

 Your changed affection for it gave no 

 sound, 



Though in my hand struck hollow as it 

 lay, 



But quickly withered like your love away:" 



THREE WEEKS IN WEST 

 CORNWALL. 



By W. H. TuGWELL, Greenwich. 



Having for some years past spent my 

 annual summer holiday on the Kent and 

 ; Sussex coast, I, for a change, selected the 



Land's End district of Cornwall, hoping, 

 perchance, that ground entirely new to me 

 might produce something good, or at any 

 rate, that I should meet with some species 

 I had not taken before. So on July i6th, 

 by night train from Taddington station, we 

 started for Penzance, and from there eleven 

 miles, cross country drive, to Porthgrvarra^ 

 a fishing village four miles from the Land's 

 End. 



Of the natural beauties of Penzance, which 

 we reached after twelve hours run from 

 London, it is not my intention to enlarge 

 here, but will simply state that the cross 

 country drive was delightful this bright sum- 

 mer morning. On getting clear of Penzance, 

 we drove through a beautifully wooded coun- 

 try, the stone hedge banks on either side 

 luxuriant with various ferns and wild flowers, 

 the curious flowering stem of the navelwort, 

 Cotyledon umbilicus^ being extremely common. 



As we neared the Land's End the landscape 

 changed considerably : the trees became more 

 and more dwarf, until the last four or five 

 miles the whole country was treeless, nothing 

 to be seen higher than the stunted furze-bush 

 growing here and there on the stone walls 

 which all over Cornwall take the place of 

 hedgerows of the mixed trees and shrubs 

 which we are accustomed to see in the Home 

 Counties. These stone walls or fences were 

 a novel feature to me as we rode mile after 

 mile ; even the gate-posts and stiles were all 

 stone, the only thing of wood being the gates 

 themselves. The road-side banks were bright 

 with wild flowers ; the tall spike of the fox- 

 glove, Digitalis ^nrpurea^ was conspicuous 

 everywhere, and the bright blue flowers of 

 Jasione montana abundant, and my thought 

 immediately went to the two Pugs, Pulchel- 

 lata and Jasionata^ that would probably be 

 found feeding on these plants. The boggy 

 tracts, of which we passed several, looked gay 

 with the yellow flowers of Narthecivm ossi- 

 fragum, Anagallis tenellay and Hypericum 

 Modes, whilst the white, downy heads of the 



