38 PAPAVERACE^ 



a black spot at the base of its petals. It is not a native plant, though it has 

 been recorded as growing in Norfolk and in Portland Island. 



3. Violet-coloured Horned Poppy (G. violdceum). — Pod erect and 

 three-valved, hairy near the summit ; leaves rough with bristly hairs thrice 

 pinnatifid, the segments linear. This flower is easily known from all our 

 other Avild Poppies by its violet-blue petals. It is a very lovely but a very 

 rare plant, occurring in chalky corn-fields, in Noi-folk and Cambridgeshire, 

 in May and June. This poppy is so nearly allied to the genera Chelidonimi 

 and Fapaver, that it has by various botanists been classed in one of these. 

 Recent writers, however, make it a distinct genus, and call it EcemSria, which 

 is the name given to it by Decandolle. J. J. Rcemer, after whom it was called, 

 was a Professor of Botany at Landshut, and assisted Schultz in an edition 

 of the " Species Plantarumof Wildenow :" he died in 1820. 



4. Celandine (Cheliddnium). 



C. majus. — Pod linear, one-celled, and two-valved; leaves pinnate, 

 with about five leaflets, which are broadly ovate, lobed, and cut and notched 

 at the edges with rounded notches. Plant perennial. This plant has no 

 affinity with Lesser Celandine, which, as we have stated before, is a species 

 of Ranunculus. It is very common on old walls, among ruins, and waste 

 places ; and is one of the herbs which follow man, and are more often found 

 near his dwellings than in secluded places. It is about two feet high, slightly 

 hairy ; its foliage of bluish green, and its flowers, which are of a dull-ochre 

 yellow, appear in April, and are in blossom till October. They are smaller 

 than any other of the poppy tribe. The stems are brittle, and full of a 

 thick yellow juice, which is used in villages as a cure for warts. It is of 

 very acrid properties, and is a violent poison, though Dr. Withering remarked 

 of it, that a medicine of so much activity would some day be converted to 

 important uses. It is now employed by oculists very successfully in opera- 

 tions on the cornea, and has long been known in villages as a remedy, when 

 diluted with milk, against thick spots in the eye. Pliny, whose large book 

 of wonders is called by Disraeli, an " awful repository of all the errors of 

 antiquity," has recorded the discovery of the virtues of this plant, which he 

 says was made by the swallows, who anointed the eyes of their young ones 

 with its juices. Our great naturalist, John Ray, however, who rejected the 

 absurd notions about plants so prevalent in his time, even among scientific 

 men, yet thought very highly of this mighty tome of the great Roman 

 naturalist, and considered it as a vast treasury of learning. Although we 

 cannot give credit to the science of the swallow, yet from earliest ages this 

 orange juice of the Celandine was applied both to eyes and heads as a 

 remedy ; hence the flower is called by the old herbalists both Swallow-wort 

 and Tetter-wort ; and most of the continental names refer to the swallow. 

 The plant is La CMlidoine of the French, Das Scholkraut of the Germans, the 

 Schelkruid of the Dutch, and the Svaleurt of the Danes; while both the 

 Spaniards and Italians term it Celidonia. According to Loureiro, its juice is 

 greatly esteemed by the natives of Cochin-China, as a medicine for a variety 

 of maladies. 



