POPPY TRIBE 35 



from its seeds : the oil is not narcotic, but is consumed very generally on the 

 Continent instead of olive oil. Its use was, at one time, prohibited by the 

 laws of France, much popular and unreasonable clamour having been excited 

 against it ; but it is now openly sold, and is often mixed with olive oil. The 

 seeds are also used in Poland and Russia as an ingredient in soups and gruel. 

 It was called rhce,as, from the Greek word "to flow," or " fall," in allusion to 

 the fugacious nature of its petals. Cybele, the mother of the gods, wore 

 a crown of Poppies, the numerous seeds being an emblem of fertility. 

 Brantz Mayer mentions a singular usage connected with the Poppy among 

 the Indian population which pours into Mexico from the Lake. " Scarcely 

 an afternoon passes in Lent that the observer will not find the canal covered 

 with gay boat-loads of Indians, passing homewards from market, dancing, 

 singing, strumming the guitar, and crowned with wreaths of poppies." " I do 

 not," he adds, " know the origin of the custom of wearing this forgetful 

 flower, but it is both a healthier and more poetic oblivion than that resorted 

 to by many people of other lands after a day of toil." 



5. Opium Poppy (P. somniferum). — Capsule nearly globose ; whole 

 plant smooth, and of sea-green tint ; leaves clasping the stem. Plant annual. 

 The solitary white poppy, standing here and there among the green blades 

 of corn in July and August, is a very beautiful flower. Sometimes it is of 

 most snowy whiteness, with a deep purple spot at the base of its petals ; at 

 other times the whole flower has a delicate or a deeper tinge of lilac. But it 

 is when cultivated in fields that its beauty is most remarkable, for there, 

 nodding to the summer winds, the large flowers look like balls of down 

 waving up and down in graceful motion. There is reason to doubt if this 

 flower is ever truly wild, for although it is apparently so in some parts of 

 England, yet it has probably been introduced with the grain into the cultured 

 field. Plentiful as it is in the wild spots of Southern Europe, yet in all 

 probability it is not indigenous even to that soil, but was brought thither 

 from Asia. It was early cultivated in Greece, at first for the sake of its 

 seeds, which were used as food, and which in modern times are much em- 

 ployed in Eastern confectionery and sprinkled over cakes. It was also grown 

 in early days very generally in the states of Europe, and now it is a beautiful 

 garden flower, for on the parterre it displays a great variety of rich and deli- 

 cate tints, while its petals still preserve the thin and fragile and crumpled 

 character of the Poppies in general. Ancient Latin sages tell how it grew in 

 the Roman garden of Tarquinius Supcrbus, and served the haughty monarch 

 as an emblem by which to shadow forth his coming tyranny. Charlemagne 

 thought it worthy a place in his Capitularies ; and the god of slumber was 

 early figured as reclining on the mass of its snowy flowers, and holding them 

 in his motionless hand. Since those days how many thousands have been 

 influenced by the juice of the Poppy ! Some lulled to the refreshing slumber 

 in which pain was for a while soothed or forgotten ; some given up to those 

 wild visions and restless agitations, which have ended by paralyzing alike all 

 bodily powers and moral energies ! 



The fields of White Poppy which occasionally ornament our own land- 

 scapes are chiefly planted either for the sake of the capsules— which are a 

 valuable external remedy in cases of pain — or for the seeds, which, though 



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