28 F L O W E R S A N D F R U I T S . 



ensuing spring as the White Clover in similar cases with ourselves. 

 t is naturalised in 'the United States, where its red flowers in June 

 will often make our plains glow. The ancients called it the CORN 

 ROSE, and thought it so necessary for the prosperity of their corn, 

 that the seeds were offered up in the sacred rites of Ceres, whose 

 garland was formed with barley or bearded wheat interwoven with 

 Poppies. They frequently mixed the seeds with their food, strewed 

 it over their bread, and also sent it to the table mixed with honey. 

 Phillips also tells us that the Persians sprinkle the seeds of Poppies 

 on their rice and wheaten cakes, which is also practised in Ger- 

 many, where the seeds are given as a cooling diet to singing birds. 

 This Poppy will thrive in any soil or situation ; but M. Pirolle tells 

 us the seeds should only be gathered from the most double kinds, 

 and that the capsules should be taken from the centre of the parent 

 stalk only. It is well adapted to ornament newly planted shrubbries, 

 or the foreground of larger flowering shrubs, as also to give a 

 gaiety to those parts of the parterre where the early flowers have 

 decayed. Almost all species of the poppy yields the narcotic juice, 

 in considerable quantities, that is used in the preparation of Opium ; 

 and as this substance is most frequently administered to procure 

 sleep and relieve pain, on this account it has been made the 

 symbol of CONSOLATION. The ancients who regarded sleep as the 

 grand physician and the great consoler of human nature, crowned 

 Morpheus with a wreath of poppies. 



" From the poppy I have ta'en 

 Mortals' balm and mortals' bane, 

 Juice that creeping through the hear. 

 Deadens every sense of smart ; 

 Doomed to heal or doomed to kill, 

 Fraught with good or fraught with ill." 



