122 
NAT. ORDER. — PAPAVERACEiE. 
broken in removing it from the ground ; the scape, which is uniformly 
terminated by a single flower, proceeds from one end of the root, 
and rises perpendicularly to the height of six or eight inches. In 
the early part of the season, that is, about the last of March or first 
of April, it flowers much under this height ; and not unfrequently 
the flowers are expanded at these periods, when the scape has just 
appeared above ground ; the leaf-stalks, which are thicker than the 
scape, are long, and arise from the same part of the root. This has 
relation to a plant in the state of forwardness represented in the 
plate. In common, by the time the flower is expanded, the leaf-stalk 
is not more than half the length of the scape ; and it then supports 
a small convoluted leaf, with its lower lobes embracing this part. 
Both the leaf-stalks and scape, which are encircled at their origin 
from the root by a common sheathe, are of an orange color, deepest 
towards their junction with the caudex, and becoming paler near 
the leaves and flowers, where it is blended with green. Wlien bro- 
ken or squeezed, they emit a colored liquor, like that of the root, — 
but paler. The stain made by this fluid on paper, is a faint yellow. 
When this plant first comes up, the young leaf is rolled round both 
scape and flower-bud ; and not unfrequently the flower is opened 
immediately over the convoluted leaf ; the under side of the leaf is 
glaucous, the disc pale yellowish green, and on both sides the orange- 
colored veins are very conspicuous. 
In favorable situations the plant has often one or two expanded 
leaves, like that in the plate ; and these are also of a pale green 
color on their upper surface, and glaucous or bluish- white under- 
neath, interspersed on either side with numerous orange-colored 
veins. The whole plant becomes much increased in size after the 
flowering is passed about a month; frequently attaining at this 
period the height of fifteen inches, but commonly not exceeding 
twelve. The leaves are then enlarged to twice or thrice the size of 
that in the plate, are heart-shaped, and deeply lobed. The number 
of lobes is mostly five or seven, and their edges have many small 
