616 Handbook of Nature-Study 



poppy opened, and also in the bud. Sketch a petal, a stamen and the 

 pistil, in separate studies. 



7. Study the poppy seed-box as it ripens. How does the stigma-disk 

 look? What is the shape of the capsule below the disk? Is it ridged? 

 What relation do its ridges bear to the stigma ridges on the disk? Cut a 

 capsule open, and note what these ridges on the outside have to do with 

 the partitions inside. Where are the seeds borne? 



8. Note the development of the holes beneath the edge of the disk of 

 the poppy capsule. How are they made? What are they for? How 

 are the seeds shaken from these holes ? What shakes the poppy seed-box 

 and helps sow the seeds? Look at a seed through a lens, and describe its 

 form and decoration. 



9. Notice the form of the poppy leaf, and note whether it is hairy or 

 covered with bloom. What is there peculiar about the smell of the poppy 

 plant? Where do poppies grow wild? 



10. Is the slender stem smooth or grooved and hairy? Is it solid or 

 hollow? 



11. When a stem or leaf is pierced or broken off, what is the color of 

 the juice which exudes? Does this juice taste sweet or bitter and un- 

 pleasant? Do you know what harmful drug is manufactured from the 

 juice of one species of poppy? What countries cultivate and use it most 

 extensively? 



THE CALIFORNIA POPPY 



Teacher's Story 



LTHOUGH this brilliant flower blossoms 

 cheerfully for us in our Eastern gardens, we 

 can never understand its beauty until we see 

 it glowing in masses on the California foot- 

 hills. We can easily understand why it was 

 selected as the flower of that great State, 

 since it burnished with gold the hills, above 

 the gold buried below; and in that land that 

 prides itself upon its sunshine, these poppies 

 seem to shine up as the sun shines down. 

 The literature of California, and it has a 

 noble literature of its own, is rich in tributes to this favored flower. 

 There is a peculiar beauty in the contrast between the shining flower 

 and its pale blue-green, delicate masses of foliage. Although it 

 is called a poppy and belongs to the poppy family, yet it is not a true 

 poppy, but belongs to a genus named after a German who visited 

 California early in the nineteenth century, accompanying a Russian 

 scientific expedition; this German's name was Eschscholtz, and he, like 

 all visitors, fell in love with this brilliant flower, and in his honor it was 

 named Eschscholtzia (es-sholts-ia) californica. This is not nearly so 

 pretty, nor so descriptive, as the name given to this poppy by the Spanish 

 settlers on the Pacific Coast, for they called it Copa-de-oro, cups of gold. 



The bud of the Eschscholtzia is a pretty thing; it stands erect on the 

 slender, rather long stem, which flares near the bud to an urnlike pedestal 



