Poppy. 
(CONSOLATION. —OBLIVION.) 
T HE Poppy is used as the floral sign of consolation; chiefly, 
it is supposed, because, as the Greek mythologists tell 
us, it was created by Ceres whilst in search of her daughter 
Proserpine, as a soother of her grief. Our old pastoral poet, 
William Browne, in his quaint phraseology, says : 
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“ Sleep-bringing poppy, by the plowman late, 
Not without cause, to Ceres consecrate : 
For being round and full at his half-birth, 
It signified the perfect orb of earth ; 
And by his inequalities when blowne, 
The earth’s low vales and higher hills were showne; 
By multitude of grains it held within, 
Of men and beasts the number noted bin. . . . 
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Or since her daughter that she loved so well, 
By him that in th’ infernal shades does dwell, 
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Fairest Proserpina was rapt away, 
And she in plaints the night, in tears the day, 
Had long time spent; when no high power could give her 
Any redresse, the poppy did relieve'her : 
For, eating of the seeds, they sleep procured, 
And so beguiled those griefs she long endured. ” 
The well-known somniferous qualities of the poppy is ad¬ 
duced as another reason why it should be deemed symbolic 
of consolation, and of oblivion. That it, the producer of 
Nature’s sweet restorer, balmy sleep, should be chosen as the 
emblem of the alleviation of our troubles, does indeed appear 
just. Shakspeare, Spenser, and others frequently allude to 
the “ drowsy poppy ” as productive of “ the easer of all our 
woes.” Leigh Hunt calls it the “blissful poppy,” from its 
soothing and sleep-inducing properties; whilst Horace Smith 
prays: 
