e.

ORIENTAL POPPY; _Nat. Ord._ PAPAVERACEAE.

The Oriental Poppy is a bold and showy plant, very hardy and perennial.
There are several colours, but the bright scarlet variety is the most
effective. Specimens of it which have become well established have a
brilliant appearance during June; they are 3ft. high and attract the eye
from a distance. Among other large herbaceous plants, as lupines,
paeonies, thalictrums, &c., or even mixed with dwarf shrubs, they are
grandly effective; indeed, almost too much so, as by the size and deep
colour of the flowers they dazzle the eye and throw into the shade the
surrounding flowers of greater beauty. The kinds with brick-red and
other shades are comparatively useless. Their flowers are not only
smaller, but wind or a few drops of rain spot the petals. A night's dew
has the same effect; the stems, too, are weak and bending, which makes
them much wanting in boldness, and when the flowers are damaged and the
stems down there is little left about the Oriental Poppies that is
ornamental.

[Illustration: FIG. 72. PAPAVER ORIENTALE (_var._ BRACTEATUM).

(One-fourth natural size.)]

The flowers are 6in. to 8in. across when expanded, produced singly on
stout round stems covered with stiff hairs flattened down, and also
distantly furnished with small pinnate leaves. Only in some varieties is
the leafy bract (Fig. 72) to be found. This variety is sometimes called
_P. bracteatum_. The calyx is three-parted and very rough; the six
petals (see engraving) are large, having well defined dark spots,
about the size of a penny piece. The leaves are a foot or more in
length, stiff but bending; they are thickly furnished with short hairs,
pinnate and serrated.

This large poppy can be grown to an enormous size, and otherwise vastly
improved by generous treatment; in a newly trenched and well manured
plot a specimen has grown 3ft. high, and produced flowers 9in. across,
the colour being fine; it will, however, do well in less favoured
quarters--in fact, it may be used to fill up any odd vacancies in the
shrubbery or borders. It is readily increased by division of the roots,
and this may be done any time from autumn to February; it also ripens
seed freely.

Flowering period, May to June.

Pentstemons.

_Nat. Ord._ SCROPHULARIACEAE.

The hybrids, which constitute the numerous and beautiful class commonly
grown as "florists' flowers," are the kinds now under notice. The plant,
when