24 PAPAVEEACE.E. 



where, and is nowhere without its charm (Papaver rheeas, 

 Plate II., Jiff. 6). 



" See the merry Poppies, all amid the waving corn ! 

 Peeping up with blushing face to greet the cheery morn 

 Here and there, and everywhere, their scarlet hue is seen, 

 Always dotting, spotting, blotting, o'er the surface green. 



" Poppies! pretty Poppies ! to me you seem to sing ; 

 'Tis not to my eye alone that pleasure true you bring ; 

 In my ear I seem to hear your gentle whisp'ring voice 

 Softly crying, murm'ring, sighing, 'Sons of men, rejoice! ' 



" Sing on, sing on, brave flow'rs ! I lend a ready ear, 

 Chant high your tuneful melody, I'm all attent to hear; 

 And, list'ners kind, if you're inclin'd the Poppies tale to learn, 

 I'll tell it you in language true, if not in ' words that burn.' 



" ' Life is like a furrow'd field,' I hear them softly say, 

 ' Broadcast sown with cares and griefs, which spring up day by day ; 

 ' But ever there, 'mid crops of care, some bright-hued JOY appears 

 1 To teach you men to hope again, for smiles amid your tears ? ' " 



The Long-headed Poppy is smaller than the common one ; 

 its petals are of a lighter red, and its seed-vessels are elongated. 

 I found it as a garden weed about Warminster, in Wiltshire. 

 There are a rough-headed Poppy with a bristly seed-vessel, and 

 a smooth-headed one with yellow anthers ; but I have not found 

 either of these. The White Poppy (P. somniferum, Plate II., 

 fig. 5), is the most important member of the family, because it 

 produces the opium of commerce. This is obtained by cutting 

 the nearly -ripe seed-vessels; the juice which flows from the 

 incision hardens and forms opium. Laudanum and morphia 

 are preparations of this. Every one knows the kind of effect 

 which these drugs produce. Sometimes they are to be regarded 

 as a blessing, soothing the agonies of pain, and compelling 

 sleep where the brain is overpressed ; but the snare of using 

 them too freely is a temptation ruinous to so many, that we 

 must regard the lulling juice of the Poppy worts as more dan- 

 gerous than the biting sap of the Hanunculacese. Leigh Hunt 

 makes the white Poppies introduce themselves winsomely : 



" We are slumbering Poppies, 



Born of Lethe hours, 

 Some awake, and some asleep, 

 Nodding in our bowers." 



