An insipid oil is expressed from the grains of the white 
poppy, which calms the senses and provokes sleep. Would 
not the unhappy lover, who dreads that the object of his 
love has no reciprocal feeling, thus express himself in the 
words of H. Smith?— 
O gentle sleep! 
Scatter thy drowsiest poppies from above; 
And in new dreams, not soon to vanish, bless 
My senses; 
Yea, gladly would he become insensible to the agonies 
of unrequited love. 
The palace of Somnus, who presided over sleep, was 
represented as a dark cave, into which the sun’s rays never 
penetrated ; and at the entrance grew poppies and other 
somniferous herbs; the Dreams watched over his couch, 
attended by Morpheus, his prime minister, holding a vase 
in one hand, and grasping poppies in the other. 
