CHAPTER XIV 



JOAN SILVER-PIN 



"Being of many variable colours, and of great beautie, although 

 of evill smell, our gentlewomen doe call them Jone Silver-pin." 



— John Gerarde, Herhall, 1596. 



ARDEN Poppies were the Joan 

 Silver-pin of Gerarde, stigma- 

 tized also by Parkinson as 

 "Jone Silver-pinne, sub audit ur ; 

 faire without and foule within." 

 In Elizabeth's day Poppies met 

 universal distrust and aversion, 

 as being the source of the 

 dreaded opium. Spenser called the flower "dead- 

 sleeping " Poppy ; Morris " the black heart, amorous 

 Poppy" — which might refer to the black spots in 

 the flower's heart. 



Clare, in his Shepherd's Calendar also asperses 

 them : — 



" Corn-poppies, that in crimson dwell, 



Called Head-aches from their sickly smell." 



Forby adds this testimony : " Any one by smelling 

 of it for a very short time may convince himself of 

 the propriety of the name." Some fancied that the 

 dazzle of color caused headaches — that vivid scarlet, 



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