84 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



The Poppy, sometimes called Corn Rose, was 

 sacred to Ceres. 



" Sleep-bringing Poppy, by the plowmen hate, 

 Not without cause, to Ceres consecrate." 



Somnus, the god of sleep, is represented as crowned 

 with Poppies. Poppies are the symbol of death. 



Blaver, Blind Eyes, Cock's-head, Headache, 

 Yedwark are names for this plant. 



The figure of the cross was thought to be repre- 

 sented in the centre of the true Red Poppy 



In an ' Early Calendar of English Flowers ' the 

 Poppy is referred to thus : 



"And Poppies, a sanguine mantle spread 

 For the blood of the Dragon St. Margaret shed." 



The Poppy was once used in love divination, a 

 girl plucking a petal and striking it, noticing the 

 force with which it broke from the stalk. 



The juice was formerly used by herbalists as a cure 

 for warts. 



The Order of the Legion of Honour has a red 

 ribbon of the colour of the Red Poppy, as chosen by 

 the Empress Charlotte of Austria, consort of the 

 Archduke Maximilian, she declaring that the Order 

 of Nature was before the Order of the Legion of 

 Honour in enclosing a poppy leaf in a letter to her 

 husband, and choosing the colour of the petals as 

 the colour of the ribbon. 



Papaver dubium. — /;/ Fig. g the flower, flower-hud 

 drooping at first, and the long smooth capstde are shown, 



