60 
LITTLE WANDERERS. 
the seeds to escape, but if you examine a poppy head 
that has been ripe for some time you will find scarcely a 
seed in it, so it proves to be a better way than it looks. 
Nature's way is generally the best way to accomplish 
an object. 
Poppies are often seen growing by the roadside or 
in the garden, far from the flower beds ; that is because 
the wind has blown the seeds to these places. 
In England the wheat fields are often gay with scar- 
let poppies, which have, no doubt, been sown with the 
wheat. They are beautiful to look at, though the 
farmer does not enjoy seeing them in his wheat. 
Opium is obtained from the juice of the partly 
ripened seed pods of some kinds of poppies. Opium is 
very valuable as a medicine, but it has to be used with 
great care, as it is also a powerful poison. 
A valuable oil is expressed from the seeds of the 
opium poppy. This oil is used for illuminating pur- 
poses in some parts of the world, and 
also for soap- 
making. The 
finer quality is 
used as food, in- 
stead of olive oil, in coun- 
tries where oil is eaten 
instead of butter, and it is also 
used in grinding artists' colors. 
