176 
THE MORAL OF FLOWERS. 
rule, as in general the odour of the poppy is strong and 
disagreeable. 
The common scarlet poppy (P. Rhoeas), which so 
beautifully mingles its splendid blossoms with “ our 
sustaining corn,” when very profusely scattered, has 
been thought a proof either of poor land or bad hus¬ 
bandry :— 
« There nodding poppies mock the hope of toil 
but if the defendant may be allowed to speak for itselt, 
we shall hear a different story :— 
“ That Ceres with my flower is grieved 
Some think, but they are much deceived ; 
For where her richest corn she sows 
The inmate poppy she allows, 
Together both our seeds doth fling, 
And bids us both together spring.” 
Anciently the poppy was consecrated to Ceres, because 
(according to Grecian fable) its seeds “ were the first 
food the disconsolate goddess was prevailed on to taste 
after the loss of her daughter Proserpine but, strange 
to say, not the last-named species, the common ornament 
of our harvest-fields, but P. somniferum; for the statues 
