"Which no cooling herb Or medicinal liquor can asswage, Nor breath of vernal air from Snowy Alp; Sleep hath forsook and given me o'er To death's benumming opium as my only cure." _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).