but
it is entitled to our admiration on another account, its blossoms have a
most delicious fragrance (similar to that of the _Olea fragrans_) not
mentioned by authors, and we believe scarcely known, having never heard
it spoken of by those who have cultivated the plant; its flowers, which
are white, are produced on the tops of the branches, which, however,
they do not strictly terminate, but usually grow out just below the
summits, on short racemi; the corolla is sometimes divided into five
segments, and there is a greater equality in the segments than is
usually found in the flowers of the Veronica, the seed-vessel differs
also in its form, being longer, more oval, and scarcely emarginate;
these several deviations from the structure of the Veronica genus,
joined to the fragrance of the blossoms of this plant, induce us to
think, that it has more affinity with the _Olea_ above mentioned.

Cultivators complain, that it does not blow freely; without any
peculiarity of treatment, it flowers with us every year, about the
middle of June; it is one of the more hardy greenhouse plants, which
is usually and readily increased by cuttings.

[Illustration: _No 243_]

[243]

ARGEMONE MEXICANA. MEXICAN ARGEMONE, or PRICKLY POPPY.

_Class and Order._

POLYANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

_Generic Character._

_Cor._ 6-petala. _Cal._ 3-phyllus. _Caps._ semivalvis.

_Specific Character and Synonyms._

ARGEMONE _mexicana_ capsulis sexvalvibus, foliis spinosis. _Linn. Syst.
Vegetab. ed. 14._ _Murr. p. 490._ _Ait. Kew. v. 2. p. 225._

PAPAVER spinosum. _Clus. Hist. 2. p. 93._

CARDUUS chrysanthemus Peruanus. The Golden Thistle of Peru. _Ger. Herb.
p. 993._

This species of Argemone is a native of Mexico, and the West-Indies,
where we should suppose it to be a very common and noxious weed, from
the name there given it of _Fico del inferno_, or the _Devil's Fig_: it
has long been introduced to this country; GERARD, who cultivated it with
success, ludicrously attributes its nickname to a different source: "The
golden Thistle of Peru, called in the West-Indies, Fique del inferno, a
friend of mine brought it unto me from an iland there, called Saint
Johns Iland, among other seedes, what reason the inhabitants there have
to call it so it is unto me unknown, unless it be bicause of his fruite,
which doth much resemble a figge in shape and bignesse, but so full of
sharpe and venemous prickles, that whosoever had one of them i