CHAPTER XIV 
JOAN SILVER-PIN 
( < 
Being of many variable colours, and of great beautie, although 
of evill smell, our gentlewomen doe call them Jone Silver-pin. ” 
— -John Gerarde, Herhall , 1596. 
ARDEN Poppies were the Joan 
Silver-pin of Gerarde, stigma- 
tized also by Parkinson as 
“Jone Silver-pinne, subauditur ; 
faire without and foule within.” 
In Elizabeth’s day Poppies met 
universal distrust and aversion, 
being the source of the 
as oeing tne source 
dreaded opium. Spenser called the flower “dead- 
sleeping ” Poppy ; Morris “ the black heart, amorous 
Poppy” — which might refer to the black spots in 
the flower’s heart. 
Clare, in his Shepherd' s Calendar also asperses 
them : — 
“ Corn-poppies, that in crimson dwell. 
Called Head-aches from their sickly smell.’ ’ 
Forby adds this testimony : Any one by smelling 
of it for a very short time may convince himself of 
the propriety of the name.” Some fancied that the 
dazzle of color caused headaches — that vivid scarlet, 
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