296 FLORA DOMESTICA. 



Mr. Davidson tells us, in a note to his translation, that 

 it was the custom to offer Poppies to the dead, especially 

 to those whose manes they designed to appease. 



Spenser gives it the epithets " dull" and " dead-sleep- 

 ing:" 



" Dull poppy, and drink-quickening setuale." 



Speaking of the plants in the Garden of Mammon, he 

 says: 



" There mournful cypress grew in greatest store, 

 And trees of bitter gall, and heben sad, 

 Dead-sleeping poppy, and black hellebore, 

 Cold coloquintida," 



" not poppy, nor mandragora, 

 Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, 

 Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep 

 Which thou ow'dst yesterday." 



SHAKSPEARE. 



" Here henbane, poppy, hemlock here, 

 Procuring deadly-sleeping ; 

 Which I do minister with fear ; 

 Not fit for each man's keeping." 



DRAYTON. 



" And thou, by pain and sorrow blest, 

 Papaver, that an opiate dew 

 Conceal'st beneath thy scarlet vest, 

 Contrasting with the corn-flower blue ; 

 Autumnal months behold thy gauzy leaves 

 Bend in the rustling gale amid the tawny sheaves." 



MRS. C. SMITH. 



Mr. Hunt, in his Mask, calls it the " Blissful Poppy,'* 

 from its soothing and sleep-inducing qualities. 



O gentle sleep ! 



Scatter thy drowsiest poppies from above; 

 And in new dreams, not soon to vanish, bless 

 My senses with the sight of her I love.'' 



H. SMITH. 



