SCARLET POPPY 



SCARLET POPPY. CORN POPPY 



Papaver rhmas. 

 Rhmas, an ancient classical name for Corn Poppy. 



The annual scarlet Poppy of the wheat fields of Great Britain and 

 the Continent. Parent of the French Poppies and of the Shirley strain. 



Stem. — Bristly, two feet high. 



Leaves. — Yellow-green, bristly, pinnately parted. 



Flowers. — Scarlet with a black eye, two of the petals smaller than the 

 other two; in cultivation every color of the opium poppy has been repro- 

 duced, but the flowers are always smaller. 



Ovary. — Ovoid or obovate; stigmatic rays eight to ten. 



All silk and flame, a scarlet cup seen among the wild grass far away 

 like a burning coal fallen from Heaven's altars. You cannot have a more 

 complete, a more stainless type of flower absolute — inside and outside — all 

 flower! — Ruskin. 



RhcBas is the Poppy of English literature. Native or natural- 

 ized to Great Britain and the Continent, particularly enjoying a 

 limestone soil, it has become the weed 

 of the wheat fields and the occupant 

 of waste and neglected places. In Ger- 

 many the blue cornflower disputes pos- 

 session of the wheat fields, but even 

 there the Poppy fairly well holds its own. 

 The question has been raised whether it 

 would ever become a weed in this coun- 

 try, but horticulturists think not; we 

 grow it with some difficulty in our 

 gardens. 



Upon this primitive stock the French 

 gardeners worked, breaking down the 

 original color and producing a strain 

 which was considered the best garden form until 1886 when the 

 Shirley Poppies appeared. 



193 



Scarlet Poppy. Papiver rhaas 

 var. Shirley 



