Trees, Shrubs, and Plants of Virgil 



sentation of poppies in the statues of Ceres. The 

 current explanation was that she ate the seeds to 

 console herself for the loss of Proserpine. A more 

 plausible account would be that she had recourse 

 to hashish. A more important use of the seeds was 

 their conjunction with honey as the normal sweetener 

 in days when there was no sugar cane or sugar beet. 



The meaning of ' vescum ' was at one time dis- 

 puted, but Munro proved that it must mean small. 

 The reference is to the size of the seeds. We should 

 not apply an epithet in this way, but the vetch seems 

 to be called ' tenuis ' by Virgil for the same reason. 



In our fourth passage Virgil has fallen into one 

 of those confusions to which we are all at times 

 liable. He doubtless meant that the priestess of 

 the Hesperides fed her watch-dragon with cakes of 

 honey and poppy seeds. The seeds, as we have 

 seen, are not soporific ; but Virgil was so much in 

 the habit of thinking of the drowsy poppy that in 

 this passage he transfers the epithet from the capsules 

 to the seeds, and makes his priestess put her watch- 

 dragon to sleep. In the same way Horace puts into 

 Juno's mouth the phrase ' quietis ordinibus deorum ' 

 at the very moment when she is emphasizing a rest- 

 lessness in herself which has lasted for centuries. 

 A like inattention was that of the modern nobleman, 

 who said, ' If we cannot move the Church we must 

 appeal to the Dissenters : " flectere si nequeo superos, 

 Acheronta movebo." ' 



Flower, April and May. 

 Italian name, Papavero. 



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