PAPAVER RHGEAS. RED POPPY. 
Class XIII. POLYANDRIA. Order I. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order, PAPAVERACEJL — THE POPPY TRIBE. 
The Red Poppy is an indigenous annual, growing plentifully in corn-fields, where it frequently proves a 
very troublesome weed ; flowering in June and July. Its geographical distribution is extensive ; but it is 
said not to occur in America. 
The stem is herbaceous, upright, branched at top, a foot or more in height, and clothed, as well as the 
flower-stalks, with strong hairs which spread horizontally. The leaves are sessile, pinnate, or bi-pinnatifid, 
serrated, and covered with short hairs. The flowers are large, solitary, and stand upon long hairy foot- 
stalks ; the calyx consists of two ovate, hairy, concave leaves, which fall before the flowers expand ; the 
petals are four, large, roundish, undulated, of a deep rich scarlet colour, and generally marked with a black 
spot at the base. The germen, which becomes a smooth, urn-shaped capsule, is ovate and large, without 
any style ; the stigma is shield-shaped, sessile, scolloped on the edges, and having ten or twelve rays. The 
fruit is a one-celled capsule, crowned with the stigma, and containing numerous kidney-shaped seeds attached 
to parietal placentae. 
The poets, says Dr. Johnson, among all those that enjoy the blessings of sleep, have been least ashamed 
to acknowledge their benefactor. How much Statius considered the evils of life as assuaged and softened 
by the balm of slumber, we may discover by that pathetic invocation, which he poured out in his waking 
nights : and that Cowley among the other felicities of his darling solitude did not forget to number the pri- 
vileges of sleeping without disturbance, we may learn from the rank that he assigns among the gifts of nature 
to the poppy, f which is scattered,’ says he, f over the fields of corn, that all the needs of man may be easily 
satisfied, and that bread and sleep may be found together.’ — 
He wildly errs who thinks I yield 
Precedence in the well-cloth’d field, 
Tho’ mix’d with wheat I grow: 
Indulgent Ceres knew my worth, 
And to adorn the teeming earth, 
She bade the Poppy blow. 
Nor vainly gay the sight to please, 
But blest with power mankind to ease, 
The Goddess saw me rise, 
‘Thrive with the life-supporting grain,’ 
She cried, ‘the solace of the swain, 
The cordial of his eyes. 
‘Seize, happy mortal, seize the good; 
My hand supplies thy sleep and food, 
And makes thee truly blest: 
With plenteous meals enjoy the day, 
In slumbers pass the night away, 
And leave to fate the rest.’ 
C. B. 
Sleep, therefore, as the chief of all earthly blessings, is justly appropriated to industry and temperance; 
the refreshing rest, and the peaceful night, are the portion only of him who lies down weary with honest 
labour, and free from the fumes of indigested luxury ; it is the just doom of laziness and gluttony, to be in- 
active without ease, and drowsy without tranquillity. Sleep has been often mentioned as the image of 
death ; £ so like it,’ says Sir Thomas Brown, £ that I dare not trust it without my prayers ;’ their resem- 
blance is, indeed, apparent and striking ; they both, when they seize the body, leave the soul at liberty: and 
wise is he that remembers of both, that they can be safe and happy only by virtue. Adventurer, No. 39. 
Si quis invisum Cereri benignae 
Me putat germen, vehementer errat; 
Ilia me in partem recipit libenter 
Fertilis agri. 
Meque frumentumque simul per omnes 
Consulens mundo Dea spargit oras: 
Crescite, 0 ! dixit, duo magna susten — 
tacula vita. 
Carpe mortalis, mea dona laetus, 
Carpe, nec plantas alias require, 
Sed satur panis, satur et soporis, 
Caetera speme. 
