Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/735

 POPPY vania, as is another species, the pale poppy (P. argemone), which has very pale red flow- POROUPINE 715 Smooth-fruited Corn Poppy (Papaver dubium). ers and. an oblong, hairy capsule. Of the perennial species, the alpine poppy, P. alpi- num (sometimes P. nudicaule), a native of the northern parts of Europe, the Rocky moun- tains, and arctic America, is only to be found in cultivation in choice collections; it forms dense tufts of radical leaves, and throws up flower stems a foot high with large orange, yellow, or white flowers. The oriental or perennial poppy, P. orientale, is not only the showiest of all poppies, but one of the most splendid of all hardy plants ; it is a native of the Caucasus ; has ample leaves about a foot long and rough with white hairs ; its hairy stems, 2 to 3 ft. high, bear each a solitary flower, 6 in. or more across, of the deepest scarlet, and usually with a blackish purple spot in the centre ; a variety is called P. bracteatum, on account of some leafy bracts below the flowers, but this is not constant ; indeed, a lot of seedlings will present considerable variety in this respect as well as in the shape of the buds and size of the flowers. Planted where the flowers can be seen from a distance against a background of dark green foliage, this poppy makes a brilliant show. It may be propagated by seed, in which case it does not usually bloom until the third year, or by division of the roots, which should always be done as soon as the foliage dies down in August. The horn poppy of Europe, glaucium luteum, is sparingly in- troduced, from New England to Virginia, near the coast; it has very glaucous, thick, hairy leaves, solitary yellow flowers, and a very nar- row linear pod 6 to 10 in. long. The prickly poppy is argemone Mexicana, a native of trop- ical America, sometimes cultivated in gardens, and abundantly naturalized in the southern states as a weed. It is an erect, very prickly plant, with its much lobed, prickly toothed leaves often blotched with white, and bears large yellow, sometimes white flowers,* fol- lowed by very prickly capsules, which open at the top by valves. It is a rather showy plant and sometimes seen in cultivation. The Cali- fornia poppy is Eschscholtzia, a genus named in honor of Eschscholtz, a botanist who visit- ed California early in tliis century. There are four or five species, all smooth annuals, with pale finely divided leaves and slender flower stalks, each bearing a large orange or yellow flower ; this genus is distinguished by the union of its sepals to form a long pointed cap, shaped like an extinguisher, which falls off entire as the flower opens, and in most species the re- ceptacle or top of the flower stalk is dilated to form a rim on which the cap rests. These are popular garden annuals, E. Californica being the most common, but the species are much confused, and the seedsmen have given spe- cific names to mere garden forms ; the flowers range from white through salmon and the brightest yellow to orange ; they are most ef- fective in masses, and a bed of them is very brilliant. So abundant are these plants in Cali- fornia that large patches of them on the hills near the coast may, when the sun is favora- ble, be seen from a considerable distance at sea. The tree poppy of California, dendromecon rigi- dum, is remarkable as being a shrubby mem- ber of the family; it grows 3 to 5 ft. high and has large yellow flowers. The bear pop- py, arctomecon Californicum, was described by Torrey from poor specimens brought home by Fremont in 1844, and has been regarded as a doubtful genus; but in 1874, 30 years later, it was rediscovered by Dr. C. C. Parry, and proves to be quite distinct. PORBFS, Fran*, the younger, a llemish paint- er, born in Antwerp in 1570, died in Paris in 1622. He was a grandson of the painter and geographer Pieter Porbus, and a son of Frans Porbus the elder. He early settled in Paris. His most celebrated works are " The Last Sup- per," in the Louvre, and his portraits of the royal family. Portraits of Henry IV. and Maria de' Medici, attributed to him, were be- queathed to the Louvre in 1875. PORCELAIN. See POTTEEY AND PORCELAIN. PORCUPINE (Lat. porcus, a hog, and spina, a thorn or spine), the common name of the sub- families cercoldbina and hystricina, the most highly organized and widely distributed of the rodent family of hystricidce. The former is confined to America, and the latter is spread over the old world. In both subfamilies the clavicles are nearly perfect, attached to the sternum but not to the scapula ; the infraorbi- tal foramina are very large ; the f rentals very broad ; the malar bones destitute of an angular process ,on the lower margin ; the molars fc ; the dorsal vertebrae usually 14, and the lumbar 4; feet short; body more or less armed with spines or quills, capable of erection by the sub- cutaneous muscles. The cercolabina live al- most entirely in trees, and their feet have gen-