oo5 
Meconopsis and Cathcartia . 
Torquatae. Of the two species in this group M. torquata is not yet known 
in cultivation ; M. discigera has been introduced and there are young plants both 
at Kew and Edinburgh, probably also elsewhere. It promises, like M. bella , to 
be a species that may take several years between seed and flower ; whether it is 
monocarpic or polycarpic cannot be predicted. 
Robustae. The five species of this group appear all to behave alike. They 
take two years to reach the flowering stage ; after flowering they die. In all, 
the rosette of crown-leaves persists during winter. In this group, therefore, the 
physiological features and morphological characters are clearly defined and dis- 
tinctive to a greater degree than they are in most of the groups. At Kew the 
different species of the group do not behave uniformly; thus M. napciulensis and 
M. Wallichii seed freely, while M. paniculata seldom sets seeds. This seems 
to be the case with M. robusia also in most English gardens, and probably is so 
with M. superba . M. napaulensis and M. Wallichii come true to seed if grown 
separately ; if grown together they readily cross. 
Chelidonifoliae. This group consists of two undoubtedly perennial species 
so curiously alike as regards rootstocks, stems, foliage, and flowers, that they are 
only separable by means of their ripe capsules. Yet as regards the capsules they 
differ greatly, for M. chelidonifolia has an ovate capsule with a distinct style, and 
a stigma with decurrent contiguous lobes like those of every species except the 
species in the group Grandes, while M. Oliveriana has a sessile stigma with radiating 
divaricate lobes exactly as in M. integrifolia and M. punicea , or in Cathcartia villosa. 
The capsule, too, is in shape identical with that of Cathcartia villosa , differing only 
in opening by short apical pores instead of opening by complete separation of 
the valves from the placental ribs. 
The conditions which obtain in English gardens are not always those most 
suitable for the development of the species of Meconopsis. This applies more 
particularly to the Himalayan species, some of which suffer so greatly from winter 
fogs and from moisture lodging in the crown that they die outright. It is possible 
to protect them to some extent by placing sheets of glass in a slanting position above 
the crowns. 
As regards duration, the groups Cambricae , Bellae , Chelidonifoliae are 
perennial. The other groups are monocarpic as a rule, the Anomalae being 
indeed annual. But within the group Aculeatae we find that M. acideata 
is sometimes, and within the group Grandes that M. grandis is, as a rule, 
polycarpic. Among the monocarpic groups we find that while as a rule, 
though this is not without its exceptions, the flower follows a year from 
seed and the leaves of the crown die during the winter which intervenes, in 
the group Robustae the plants do not flower till the second year from seed, 
and the leaves of the crown persist during the two winters which intervene. 
But the question of duration can hardly be said to be settled for the genus 
by experience in horticulture under conditions admittedly unlike those to 
which the plants are naturally subjected. When it is seen that in the case 
of two, M. aculeata and M. grandis , a species may on occasion be either 
