of flower absolute ; inside and outside all flower. 

 No sparing of color anywhere, no outside coarsenesses, 

 no interior secrecies, open as the sunshine that creates 

 it ; fine finished on both sides, down to the extremest 

 point of insertion on its narrow stalk, and robed in 

 the purple of the Caesars. John Rusk ^ 



Here the poppy hosts assemble : 

 How they startle, how they tremble ! 

 All their royal hoods unpinned 

 Blow out lightly in the wind. 

 Here is gold to labor for ; 

 Here is pillage worth a war. 

 Men that in the cities grind, 

 Come ! before the heart is blind. 



Edwin Markham. 



Concerning 



A seed we say is a simple thing, 



The germ of a flower or weed, 

 But all Earth's workmen, laboring 

 With all the help that wealth could bring, 

 Never could make a seed. 



Julian S. Cutler. 



Of all the wonderful things in the wonderful 

 universe of God, nothing seems to me more sur- 

 prising than the planting of a seed in the blank earth 

 and the result thereof. Take a poppy seed, for 

 instance: it lies in your palm, the merest atom of 

 matter, hardly visible, a speck, a pin's point in bulk, 

 but within it is imprisoned a spirit of beauty ineffable, 

 which will break its bonds and emerge from the dark 

 ground and blossom in a splendor so dazzling as to 

 baffle all powers of description. 



