Eschscholtzia

THE ESCHSCHOLTZIA, Eschscholtzia Californic

THE profane manner in which his name would be uttered and execrated for its inherent ugliness, and the perversity of writers and printers in spelling it, could never by any chance have occurred to Dr. Eschscholtz, happy in the midst of his flowers. Peace to his dust, honour to his memory, and may his name, as having a place in the roll of devotees of the goddess Flora, be henceforth and for ever spelt correctly.

This is a curious and interesting plant, and so nearly related to the genus papaver, that it may with propriety be called the yellow California poppy. The leaves are of a glaucous green, and much divided into narrow linear segments. The flower-bud is an elongated spiral cone, covered with an extinguisher-like calyx, which is pushed off upwards as the petals expand, and the flower rests on a fleshy receptacle with a dilated margin, which has been, or might be, copied in many works of art. The seed-vessel is a long striated pod, altogether differing in appearance from the globular or urn-shaped pod of a true poppy, and it opens by two valves. For a study of plant structure this is a capital subject, and the young botanist will do well to grow a few tufts of Eschscholtzias in the garden, and give close heed to them in all their stages from the cradle to the grave.