82 
FLORA AND SYLVA 
seeds as early as possible, for even good 
seed soon loses its vitality. Sowings ; 
should be made every year in pans, 
growing the young plants on without a 
check, exposing them gradually as they | 
gain strength, and getting as much 
growth as possible into the first summer. 
Potted into four-inch pots, in a mixture 
of peat and loam, they can be planted 
out 1 8 inches apart in spring, without 
feeling the change. When older, they 
move with large balls of earth, held by 
the fibrous roots, and may then be 
grouped where they are to flower ; the ; 
strongest plants bloom in their second | 
summer, and those less forward remain 
as a reserve, but long waiting in pots 
is against success. According to vigour 
and season the plants vary in height, 
and the effect of different kinds is very 
different, such^s pa/j/cu/ata^ 7iepale?tsis, , 
and JVallichi forming tall pyramids of [ 
flower, while kinds like simplicifolia, 
ho7n^idula, and pii7iicea, give only one ' 
bloom to each stem. The flowers of 
most kinds are too fleeting for cutting, 
but those of ca7nbrica and heterophylla j 
are useful in this way. The following 
species are now recognised but are not 
all in cultivation. 
Meconopsis acu/eata. — One of the most stately 
and beautiful of plants, forming a pyramid of I 
branching stems,with leaves of pale green deep- 
ly cut into irregular lobes, and covered all over 
with soft tawny-coloured bristles. It is a bien- j 
nial, hardy in our winters, though less beauti- j 
ful through the loss of its leaves, which die \ 
away to a bare crown. It flowers in June upon 
stout stems 2\ to 4 feet high, bearing many 
flowers 2 to 3 inches across, of a lovely deep 
blue shaded with violet, the petals glistening 
like shot silk, and contrasting charmingly with 
the yellow stamens. Western Himalayas, at I 
elevations of 11,000 to 15,000 feet. i 
M. bella.- — From the high mountains of 
Sikkim, where it grows under conditions which 
seem to make success difficult in Britain. Its 
noble solitary flowers of blue or bluish-purple, 
are borne in a high region of cloud and mist, 
which is yet free from rain, to which the plant 
seems averse. It finds its foothold in crevices 
nearly destitute of soil, thinly surfaced with 
rocky fragments and damp moss, and beneath 
this covering its roots spread far, throwinglow 
tufts of much-cut foliage. Whether a true 
perennial, or only biennial, is still uncertain. 
M. cambrica. — Welsh Poppy, A native 
plant, and one of the best for stony banks, old 
quarries, or bare shady places. The only trouble 
is to keep it from smothering more delicate 
neighbours in gardens ; to keep it in check 
and to prolong its beauty, the seedpods are 
best cut off as they form, for it will spread 
anywhere, even upon gravel walks and tiled 
courtyards. For old walls it is quite at home 
with Wallflowers, and the Yellow Corydalis, 
giving a long succession of flowers from May 
to August. Its cheerful yellow flowers are borne 
upon long stems and continuously through the 
summer. Left to spread in moist places where 
its free growth can do no harm, there are few 
prettier pictures than a colony of the Welsh 
Poppy, seeds of which may be sown in the 
open during April. Of recent years a strain 
of double flowers has arisen, giving shades of 
yellow, orange, and red. 
M. che/Uoniifolia. — A little plant of dwarf 
habit and deeply cut foliage, from the Thibetan 
frontier of China. Not, as yet, in cultivation. 
M. grandis. — A scarce and newly introduced 
kind from the mountains of Sikkim, and one 
of the few true perennials in the genus. This 
is fortunate, for though it has flowered under 
glass with iVlr Bulley for two years in suc- 
cession, it has yielded no seed. It is a plant 
of tall habit, with uncut leaves and solitary 
purple flowers of beautiful glossy texture. 
M. heterophylla. — The only kind found in 
America, where it grows over a wide area but 
is nowhere abundant, thriving best in the light, 
dry soils of California. It is an annual, and 
succeeds in this country both as a pot-plant 
under glass, or in the border during summer, 
where it flowers and ripens seed freely. It is 
a variable plant, but mostly reaches 12 to 18 
