aceae.'

'Oh, but that is harder and harder!'

'No it isn't; it is easier and easier. See, these belong to one family;
so you learn to know them as relations, and then you can remember them.'

'How do you know they are of the same family?'

'Well, they have the family features. They all have an acrid sap or
juice, exogenous plants, with many stamens. These are the stamens, do
you know? They have calyx and corolla both, and the corolla has
separate petals, see; and the Ranunculaceae have the petals and sepals
deciduous, and the leaves generally cut, as you see these are. They are
what you may call a bitter family; it runs in the blood, that is to
say, in the juice of them; and a good many of the members of the family
are downright wicked, that is, poisonous.'

'Pitt, you talk very queerly?'

'Not a bit more queer than the things are I am talking of. Now this
_Sanguinaria_ belongs to the Papaveraceae--the poppy family.'

'Does it! But it does not look like them, like poppies.'

'This coloured juice that you see when you break the stem, is one of
the family marks of this family. I won't trouble you with the others.
But you must learn to know them, Queen Esther. King Solomon knew every
plant from the royal cedar to the hyssop on the wall; and I am sure a
queen ought to know as much. Now the blood of the Papaveraceae has a
taint also; it is apt to have a narcotic quality.'

'What is narcotic?'

'Putting to sleep.'

'That's a good quality.'

'Hm!' said Dallas; 'that's as you take it. It isn't healthy to go so
fast asleep that you never can wake up again.'

'Can people do that?' asked Esther in astonishment.

'Yes. Did you never hear of people killing themselves with laudanum, or
opium?'

'I wonder why the poppy family was made so?'

'Why not?'

'So mischievous.'

'That's when people take too much of them. They are very good for
medicine sometimes, Queen Esther.'

The girl's appearance by this time had totally changed. All the dull,
weary, depressed air and expression were gone; she was alert and erect,
the beautiful eyes filled with life and eagerness, a dawning of colour
in the cheeks, the brow busy with stirring thoughts. Esther's face was
a grave face still, for a child of her years; but now it was a noble
gravity, showing intelligence and power and purpose; indicating
capacity, and also an eager sympathy with whatever is great and worthy
to take and hold the attention. Whether it were history that