296 FLORA DOMESTICA. 



Mr. Davidson tells us, in a note to his translation, that 

 it was the custom to offer Poppies to the dead, especially 

 to those whose manes they designed to appease. 



Spenser gives it the epithets " dvdl" and " dead-sleep- 

 ing:" 



" Dull poppy, and drink-quickening setuale." 



Speaking of the plants in the Garden of Mammon, he 

 says: 



" There mournful cypress grew in greatest store. 

 And trees of bitter gall, and heben sad. 

 Dead-sleeping poppy, and black hellebore. 

 Cold coloquintida," 



" not poppy, nor raandragora. 



Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world. 

 Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep 

 Which thou ow'dst yesterday." 



Shaksfeare. 



'' Here henbane, poppy, hemlock here. 

 Procuring deadly-sleeping ; 

 Which I do minister with fear ; 

 Not fit for each man's keeping." 



Deayton. 



^' And thou, by pain and sorrow blest, 

 Papaver, that an opiate dew 

 Conceal'st beneath thy scarlet vest, 

 Contrasting with the corn-flower blue ; 

 Autumnal months behold thy gauzy leaves 

 Bend in the rustling gale amid the tawny sheaves." 



Mrs. C. Smith. 



Mr. Hunt, in his Mask, calls it the " Blissful Poppy," 

 from its soothing and sleep-inducing qualities. 



" O gentle sleep ! 



Scatter thy drowsiest poppies from above; 

 And in new dreams, not soon to vanish, bless 

 My senses with the sight of her I love." 



H. Smith. 



