504 pfant Tsore, "heQer^f, and "bijric/. 



Poplar leaves consecrated to the Manes. Like several other 



funereal trees, the Poplar has become a symbol of generation. 

 Thus, in Bologna, at the birth of a girl, the parents, if able, will 

 plant one thousand Poplar-trees, which they religiously tend till 

 the maiden marries, when they are cut down, and the price given 

 as a marriage portion to the bride. Alphonse Karr says that a 

 similar custom exists in certain northern countries among the 



better class of farmers. In Sicily, and especially at Monterosso, 



near Modica, on Midsummer Eve, the people fell the highest 

 Poplar, and with shouts, drag it through the village. Numbers of 

 the villagers mount the trunk during its progress, beating a drum. 

 Around this great Poplar, symbolising the greatest solar ascension 

 and the decline which follows it, the crowd dance and sing an 



appropriate refrain. Astrologers state that the Poplar is under 



the dominion of Saturn. 



POPPY. — The origin of the Poppy {Papaver) was attributed 

 by the ancient Greeks to Ceres, who, despairing of regaining her 

 daughter Proserpine, carried off by Pluto, created the flower, in 

 order that by partaking of it she might obtain sleep, and thus forget 

 her great grief. Browne thus speaks of this legend : — 

 "Sleep-bringing Poppy, by the plowman late, 

 Not without cause to Ceres consecrate. 

 ****** 



Fairest Proserpine was rapt away, 



And she in plaints the night, in tears the day, 



Had long time spent : when no high power could give her 



Any redresse, the Poppy did relieve her : 



For eating of the seeds, they sleep procured, 



And so beguiled those griefs she long endured." 



The ancients considered the Papaver Rh^a, or Corn-Rose, so neces- 

 sary 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 with Barley or bearded Wheat interwoven with Poppies. 

 The goddess is sometimes depi(fted holding Poppies in her hand. 

 The somniferous and quieting effects of the Poppy, which were 

 well known to the Greeks, probably led them to represent the 

 deities Hypnos (Sleep), Thanatos (Death), and Nyx (Night), either 



as crowned with Poppies, or holding Poppies in their hands. ■ 



Rapin, speaking of the effects of the Poppy as a narcotic, says: — 



"The powerful seeds, when pressed, afford a juice . 

 In med'cine famous, and of sovereign use, 

 Whether in tedious nights it charm to rest, 

 Or bind the stubborn cough and ease the lab'ring breast." 



It was customary with the Romans, to offer Poppies to the dead, 

 especially to those whose names they were desirous of appeasing, 

 Virgil, in his ' Georgics,' calls the flower the Lethean Poppy, and 

 directs it to be offered as a funeral rite to Orpheus. The Grecian 

 youths and maidens were wont to prove the sincerity of their 

 lovers by placing in the hollow of the palm of the left hand a 



