POPPY. 
169 
cate texture, elegance of shape, or variety of 
colouring. But, independently of the flower 
the capsule, or seed-case, alone of the Poppy 
cannot be examined without exciting the utmost 
admiration of the wisdom with which it has been 
formed. It is covered by a shield-formed stigma, 
or cap, thickly perforated with holes, to admit 
the fecundating particles of tlie farina to the 
channels which are so disposed around the 
eleven cells, or chambers, of the capsule, that 
each seed receives its regular portion of this 
matter by means of an umbilical cord; though 
there are frequently six thousand of these vege¬ 
table eggs enclosed in one capsule. When we 
consider that each of these minute seeds is so 
admirably perfect as to contain all the essentials 
necessary to form in the following year a plant 
capable of producing at least twenty capsules, 
we cannot forbear exclaiming with the poet:— 
How wondrous are thy ways! 
How far above our knowledge and our praise ! 
Pope. 
In the time of Gesner, the celebrated botanist 
of Switzerland, the village Damon and Chloes 
proved the sincerity of their lovers by placing 
8 
