OP ORNAMENTAL ANNUALS. 
23 
useless to bestow so much culture on a flower which, if left to sow itself, will spring up like a weed; but the 
difference between the cultivated plant and the self-sown plant, will amply compensate the lover of flowers for 
the trouble bestowed. Double poppies, treated as we have directed, will produce flowers very nearly as large as 
those of the Pceonia Moutan, and as regularly formed as those of the Persian ranunculus. 
2.—PAPAVER RHiEAS, Lin. THE CORN POPPY. 
Engravings. —Eng. Bot. t. 645, 2nd. edit. vol. v. t. 755 ; Curt. 
FI. Lond. vol. iii. t. 32 ; Wood’s Med. Bot. t. 186 ; and our Jig. 5, 
in Plate 4. 
Specific Character. —Capsules smooth, obovate. Sepals pilose. 
Stem many-flowered, scabrous, with spreading bristles. Leaves pin¬ 
nate-parted. Lobes elongated, deeply-toothed, acute.—(G. Don.) 
Varieties. —These are very numerous, but the most beautiful are 
the double white, and the double striped. 
Description, &c.— The corn poppy is about one foot or two feet high. The leaves are alternate, long, 
downy, and deeply cut. The flowers in the single kind are of a brilliant scarlet, and there is a blackish spot 
at the base of each petal. The double flowers vary from scarlet to pink, and white. The flowers are solitary, 
and are produced at the extremities of the stem and branches. The capsules are very much smaller than those 
of the opium poppy ; they are oval, and are crowned with a flat lid, under which are some very small openings, 
to admit of the discharge of the seeds, which are very small, brown, and almost transparent. This species is a 
common weed in corn fields, whence it derives its popular name of the corn poppy; it is also called the corn-rose, 
red-weed, and by many other names. It is one of the few British plants that have scarlet flowers. 
In some places where the farmers are negligent, whole fields may be seen in summer so covered with this weed, 
as to resemble a carpet of various brilliant colours; but where this is the case, the poppies are found seriously 
to injure the corn ; and they are very difficult to eradicate, as one poppy-head contains seeds enough to sow a 
whole field. The French name for this poppy is coquelicot , and it is from its colour in a wild state that the 
coquelicot colour takes its name. The capsules, stem, and leaves of the corn poppy are slightly narcotic, and an 
extract from them is sometimes used as a sedative, and sold as syrup of poppies. The petals also afford a colour¬ 
ing matter, which is frequently mixed with the syrup made from the opium poppies. 
Culture. —The garden varieties of the corn poppy are very beautiful, but unfortunately they seldom come 
true from seed; so that a happy mixture of their colours must depend on chance rather than the taste or skill 
of the gardener. As this poppy is of lower growth and less vigorous habit than the opium poppy, it does not 
require so rich a soil. The seeds not being so full of oil, will keep better than those of the opium poppy, and 
consequently more are likely to be good in a given quantity. For this reason, they need not be sown so thickly 
as those of the opium poppy, though they will still requii’e to be sown thicker than those of most other kinds of 
flowers. Seeds of all the varieties of corn poppy may be purchased in any seed shop. The specimen from which 
our drawing was made, grew in the Hammersmith nursery, and it is one of the kind called the double dwarf 
carnation poppy. A bed of these poppies, thinned out so as to leave the plants at regular distances, has a beau¬ 
tiful effect when in flower, and, if the plants are kept dwarf, looks almost as well as a bed of ranunculuses. To 
keep the plants dwarf, the bed should be thinned out, so as to leave the poppies 18 inches apart, every way ; 
the bed should be carefully weeded and watered in dry weather; and any shoot that appears likely to ascend 
too high should be cut off. *■ 
