184 



CHAR III. 



Of Poppie 



The Names. 



THe general name * * * in plain English is, Because it doth 

 fo ftupifie thofe that eat it, that they can not go about their 

 bufineffe, or becaufe the ufe of it doth * * * at length 

 make men infenfible. 



The Kindes 



There be severall sorts of PoppieSj some tame and of the garden as 

 I. The white garden Poppy * * * 3. Little red Poppy or Corn-rose* 

 * * * 5 Murry coloured Poppy. * * * 



The Forme. 



Spatling Poppy * * * hath divers weak tender stalks, full of 

 joynts, about a foot or half a yard long, ufually lying on the ground, 

 whereon grow many pale whitifh green leaves, two always fet to- 

 gether at the joynts, one againft another; * * * at the tops of the 

 ftalks upon many flender foot-ftalks, ftand divers white flowers, 

 composed of five small leaves apeece, with a deep notch in the middle 

 of every one of them * * * . 



The Signature and Vertues. 



The Heads of the Poppies with their crowns do fomewhat repre- 

 fent the Head and Brain, and therefore the decoctions of them are 

 ufed with good succeffe in feveral difeafes of the Head. The Garden 

 Poppy Heads with the seeds, made into a Syrup, procureth rest and 

 fleep in the fick and weak, * * * Mr. Culpepper faith, that it is 

 the juyce of the white Poppy growing in England, which they sell 

 for Opium in the Shops, though they pretend to have it out of the 

 Eaftern Countries, where they gather it only from the heads of the 

 great white Poppy; but certainly his Pen run before his Wit, when he 

 faid'it grew beyond the moon: for there is no queftion, but that it is 

 fo gathered in thofe parts * * * It was the head of this Poppy 

 which the Greeks * * * [thought] to forefhew, as they conceived, 

 the succefs of their love: For thefe Flowers, the tops being clofed 

 together with ones fingers, feem like little Bladders, which being 

 broken againft ones other hand, make a noife like unto the Bladders 

 of little Fifhes, being broken : If they gave a good report, they con- 

 cluded they fhould be fucceffful; if not, they prefently let fall their 

 suit: so fuperftitious were thofe people, as fome in our own dayes 

 be. * * * 



* The common poppy of the wheat or " corn " fields, doubtless. 



