_Samson Agonistes._

Many of the Poppies are very ornamental garden plants. The pretty yellow
Welsh Poppy (_Meconopsis Cambrica_), abundant at Cheddar Cliffs, is an
excellent plant for the rockwork where, when once established, it will
grow freely and sow itself; and for the same place the little Papaver
Alpinum, with its varieties, is equally well suited. For the open border
the larger Poppies are very suitable, especially the great Oriental
Poppy (_P. orientale_) and the grand scarlet Siberian Poppy (_P.
bracteatum_), perhaps the most gorgeous of hardy plants: while among the
rarer species of the tribe we must reckon the Meconopses of the
Himalayas (_M. Wallichi_ and _M. Nepalensis_), plants of singular beauty
and elegance, but very difficult to grow, and still more difficult to
keep, even if once established; for though perfectly hardy, they are
little more than biennials. Besides these Poppies, the large double
garden Poppies are very showy and of great variety in colour, but they
are only annuals.

FOOTNOTES:

[223:1] "We usually think of the Poppy as a coarse flower; but it is the
most transparent and delicate of all the blossoms of the field. The
rest, nearly all of them, depend on the texture of their surface for
colour. But the Poppy is painted _glass_; it never glows so brightly as
when the sun shines through it. Wherever it is seen, against the light
or with the light, always it is a flame, and warms the wind like a blown
ruby."--RUSKIN, _Proserpina_, p. 86.

POTATO.

(1) _Thersites._

How the devil Luxury, with his fat rump and Potato-finger,
tickles these together.

_Troilus and Cressida_, act v, sc. 2 (55).

(2) _Falstaff._

Let the sky rain Potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green
Sleeves, hail kissing-comfits, and snow Eringoes.

_Merry Wives of Windsor_, act v, sc. 5 (20).

The chief interest in these two passages is that they contain almost the
earliest notice of Potatoes after their introduction into England. The
generally received account is that they were introduced into Ireland in
1584 by Sir Walter Raleigh, and from thence brought into England; but
the year of their first planting in England is not recorded. They are
not mentioned by Lyte in 1586. Gerard grew them in 1597, but only as
curiosities, under the name of Virginian Potatoes (_Battata
Virginianorum_ and _Pappas_), to d