THE POPPY. 



389 



of the very highest scarlet dye, which is indeed 

 the prime and 

 chiefest colour, and 

 has been in all 

 ages of the world 

 the most highly 

 esteemed ; next, it 

 has as much curi- 

 osity shewed also 

 in the husk or case 

 of the seed, as any 

 one plant I have 

 yet met withall; 

 thirdly, the very 

 seed them selves the 

 microscope disco- 

 vers to be very 

 curiously shaped 

 bodies ; and lastly, 

 Nature has taken 

 such abundant care 

 for the propagation 

 of it, that one sin- 

 gle seed grown into 

 a plant is capable 

 of bringing some 

 hundred thousands 

 of seeds."* 



Theocritus al- 

 ludes to the use of red-poppies as love-charms: 



* " Mirographia." Linnaeus says that 30,000 seeds have 

 been counted in the head of a single red-poppy. 



COMMON SCARLBT-POPPV, CORN-POPPY, CORN-ROSE. 

 Papaver rhceas. 



