342 NA T URE-ST UDY RE VIE W [15 :6— Nov. , 1919 



derived from their correlation with history, physiology, language, 

 literature, and geography are countless. They have been to 

 many a child, and grown-up people as well, the first incentive to 

 awaken love for nature, particularly among those living in the 

 larger cities, whose opportunities for out-of-door observations 

 are necessarily limited. 



"Oh the gleesome saunter over fields and hillsides! 

 The leaves and flowers of the commonest weeds — 

 The moist, fresh stillness of the woods. 

 The exquisite smell of the earth at daybreak " 



"In paths untrodden, 

 In the growth by margins of pond waters." 



The Poppies of Flanders Fields 



Lt. N. M. Grier, U. S. a. 



"In Flanders fields the poppies blew 

 Between the crosses, row and row 

 That mark our places." 



Two kinds of poppies grow in Flanders and Northern France, 

 one kind at least being as numerous as any of our common weeds. 

 The one seen most frequently is Papaver Rhoeas, a gorgeous red 

 flower, which may become fully as luxuriant as any of our Cali- 

 fornia poppies. The other is evidently a variety of Papaver 

 somniferum, having white or violet petals with a dark patch at 

 the base. It is by no means as common as the red kind, there are 

 apparently a dozen of the red to one of the violet or white. Papa- 

 ver somniferum is grown to some extent commercially in the central 

 regions of France for opium, while in the northern part and in 

 Germany, an oil made from seeds of both kinds is much prized for 

 salads and is also in demand for artistic oil paintings. Both of 

 these poppies respond to every type of terrestrial environment, 

 and stunted as well as exceptionally large flowers may be found. 



The devastation wrought by the war in these countries is under- 

 stood to some extent in America, but one will never fully appre- 

 ciate the ruin until he sees it for himself. Champagne for example, 

 is a section of France once with a wonderfully fertile soil well 

 adapted for wine making grapes, the result of hundreds of years of 

 intensive cultivation and fertilizing. Anywhere from two to four 

 feet beneath it originally was the chalky stone underlying a large 



