POPPY. SIO 



Poppy of the corn-fields, from which it may be 

 inferred that some kinds of seeds being kept out 

 of the earth beyond the time allotted by nature, 

 become weakened so as to lose a part of their 

 natural properties, and thus produce flowers 

 which the botanist rejects as monsters, from their 

 being out of nature, whilst the florist exults over 

 the change which his art has assisted to produce. 

 We have before noticed that to secure the Bal- 

 sam in a double state the seed should be kept 

 for some years before it is sown. 



The common Corn Poppy, where it abounds, 

 denotes a light and shallow soil, and it is singular 

 that when such land is broken or ploughed up in 

 the spring, when there can be no Poppies to 

 scatter their seed, although it be where none have 

 ever been seen, yet it is a great chance that such 

 land shall not be covered with these plants during 

 the summer. We have frequently observed this 

 phenomenon on the South Downs of Sussex, 

 when lands have been first broken up, and even 

 in situations distant from other corn-lands, we 

 have seen the plains glow with the red petals of 

 the Wild Poppy. 



The ancients thought the Rlioeas, Corn-Rose, so 

 necessary for the prosperity of their corn, that 

 the seeds of this Poppy were offered up in the 

 sacred rites of Ceres, whose garland ^was formed 



Vol. ir. P 



