DECKjinKR 2a. THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 215 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
J1 w 
1, n 
Weather near London in 1851. 
DECEMflEK 23-29, 1852. , - - 
1 Barometer. Thermo. Wind. Rain in In. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R.&S. 
l\Ioon'8 
Age. 
Clock 
aft. Sun. 
l 
Day of 
Year. 
23 Th 
Orange-breasted Goosander. 30-22G — 30.0(33 4(3—30 
N.R. — 
7 a. 8 
.52 a. 3 
4 45 
12 
0 25 
358 
24 F 
White Nun comes. 30.288 — 30.261 42—43 
S.K. ; — 
8 
52 
5 53 
13 
Ob. 5 
.359 
25 S 
Christmas Day. 30.3.57 — 30.318 41—2.5 
S.W. — 
H 
53 
6 59 
14 
0 34 
360 
1 Sunday AFTER Che. St. Stephen. 30.532 — 30.439 43—17 
E. , 01 
8 
54 
rises. 
© 
1 4 
361 
27 M 
St. John F.vangelist. .30.488 — 30.349, 40—29 
S.W. , 02 
8 
55 
4 a 49 
16 
1 34 
362 
28 Tu 
Innocents. .30.427 — 30.313 42-31 
E. ; 08 
9 
55 
5 52 
17 
2 3 
363 
29 vv 
Velvet Duck comes. ,30.493 — 30.486 40—36 
N.E. — 
9 
56 
7 4 
18 
' 2 32 
364 
Metkohology OF THE Week. —At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-five years, the average highest and lowest tempera¬ 
tures of these days are 42.6"’ and 31° respeetively. The greatest heat, 58°, occurred on the 25th in 1827 i and the lowest cold, 10°, on the 24th 
in 1830. During the period 113 days were fine, and on C 2 rain fell. 
BRITISH WILD FLOWERS, 
rorry-WORTS.— papaveeace-t;. 
PAPAVEE. POPPY. 
Section I.—Poppies with hrislbj cnpsutes. 
{Continued from ptujc ]!)5.) 
Papayee NUDicAPT.F.: Naked - stallcPil pi ickly - headed 
Poppy. 
Description. —This is <a pcrenni.al. Boots fibrous, slender, 
and whitish. Stem none. Boot-leaves numerous, on long 
stalks, bristly, the lowest being the broadest and shortest, ^ 
least deeply divided, and into the fewest and broadest seg¬ 
ments ; milky-green, especially on the under-side. From 
among these leaves arises usually a single, naked, cylin¬ 
drical flower-stalk, but sometimes two such stalks, less than 
a foot high, rather milky-green, clothed with horizontal 
bristles, and crowned with a single pale yellow flower. 
Cali/x of two oval, concave sepals, clothed with brown hairs ; 
of the four petals, which are roundish, the twif inner are 
rather the smaller. /S'fameasvery numerous, having yellowish 
filaments, and broadish, flattened and channeled anthers. 
Crermen roundish, greenisli, crowned with an eight rayed 
stigma. Capsule, or seed-vessel, roundish, oblong, and 
bristly. Seeds black when ripe. | 
Place where found. —Gathered by Professor Giesecke, of | 
Dublin, among rocky glens in the hills at Achilhead, on the 
north-west coast of Ireland. 
Time of floweriny. —June. 
History. —Being hitherto found upon only one spot in the 
British Isles, it must be considered as among the many 
plants of which it may be questioned whether they are 
really natives. At all events, it was cultivated here as long 
ago as 1730, for seeds of it were sent to the F.ltham Garden 
in that year, by .1. H. de Sprekelsen, who had it from the 
province of Argunsky, in Siberia. Its flowers are as sweet¬ 
smelling as the Jonquil, emitting their fragrance especially 
during the cool of the morning and evening. Sir W. 
Hooker, and Dr. Bindley, have enrolled it in their catalogues 
of our native plants. Linnfcus doubted whether it is not a 
variety of Pupaver alpinum, or Alpine prickly-headed Poppy. 
Being a native in great abundance of the shores and islands 
of the colder regions of North America, a seed may have 
floated to the coast of Ireland. {Martyn. Wilheriny. 
Hooker.) 
The most wonderful and most gratifying botanical dis¬ 
covery since the demonstration of the sexuality and cir¬ 
culation of the sap in plants, is the fact that Wheat, at 
present known to botanists as Trilicuin, is only the 
miserable grass, fTfyilop)s ovata, improved by cultivation. 
We noticed this discovery very briefly at page 2(i7 of our 
last volume, and we recur to it now, in consequence of 
the lecture and exhibition of specimens of the plant in 
the course of its transformation, at the Meeting of the 
I.ondon Horticultural Society on the 7tli instant. 
dlhe Society having announced that something would 
be seen and said on the subject at this Meeting, a 
larger number of the members were attracted to the 
meeting than is usual at this season. The cultivators 
of the science of botany, and of practical gardening, 
were there also in greater numbers than usual; and no 
wonder, seeing that this discovery relates, to a circum¬ 
stance most remarkably connected with either of their 
departments. 
No one has ever discovered the native country of 
Wheat, Bailey, Rye, or Oats; yet, if a year ago we bad 
suggested that these at the beginning of the world were 
not created as we have them; or even if we had said 
that these improvements of wild produce are merciful 
sweeteners and aids to that toil by which man is or¬ 
dained to eat bread by the sweat of his brow, we should 
have been suspected of being disciples of the author of 
“Vestiges of the Creation.” Nevertheless, the opinion 
has been gaining ground for years, that in the vegetable, 
and even animal life, the types originally created were 
very much fewer than the forms now existing seemingly 
in a state of nature. 
It was in order to exemplify part of this question, 
that the Society were this day prepared with proofs to 
show the successive stages of development of that wiry, 
small grass, fifyilops ovata, a native of the South of 
Europe, from the wild state, to the full-eared Wheat of 
the Pharaohs of Egypt, or of the farmers of old Eng¬ 
land; and, as if on purpose to overthrow the idle theory 
of the return of improved races to the original types if | 
left to nature, we have the discovery by Col. Chesney, I 
of Wheat and Barley on the banks of the Euphrates, j 
No. CCXXL, VoL. IX 
