Summer's Kiss - The Poppy

Poppy is the name given to members of the family Papaveraceae. All
produce latex, are often brightly coloured, and have flowers with two
sepals and four overlapping petals, often crumpled when they first
open.

The Poppy of the cornfields was held by the ancients to be favourable
to the growth of corn, and was dedicated to Ceres, goddess of harvests,
who is usually represented as adorned with wheat-ears and poppy
flowers.

With the Greeks, the number of seeds in the Poppy symbolized,
generation, and Venus was sometimes represented as holding in one hand
an apple and in the other a Poppy flower. But it was to Diana, queen
and huntress, that the field Poppy, growing where no step had trod,
uncontaminated by man, more especially belonged.

Young Greek girls would test the fidelity of their lovers by placing in
the palm of the hand a Poppy petal, which, if when sharply struck
responded by a loud crack, signified sincerity, but which, if it broke,
signified unfathfulness. From Greece, this love test spread throughout
other parts of Europe. In some parts of Holland and Germany, so
traditional have the prophetic powers of the Poppy become, that it is
known as the "cracking rose" or "confession rose".

Popig, the old Saxon name for Poppy, is thought to have been given
because of the practice of mixing the seeds of the common scarlet
species with the food of infants to induce sleep, and it is in its
character of sleep that the Poppy has become famous.

The true opium Poppy has, however, always white blooms, with a large
purple stain at the base of the petals. This is the renowned "drowsy
poppy" from the capsules of which opium has been prepared for over
twenty five centuries.

According to one Bengali legend, these narcotic properties were the
result of a rashi or magicians spell. The rashi, who lived on the bank
of the River Ganges, had given a mouse the power of speech, and then
transformed it into a cat, a dog, an ape, a boar, and then later
transformed it into a beautiful maiden to whom he gave the name
Postomani, or Poppy seed lady. Postomani deceived the king into
believing she was of royal blood and he married her.

After a time of happiness together, the couple were seperated by
Postomani's untimely death. The rashi, attempting to console the king,
revealed the deception and told the king of her true origin saying,
"Let her body remain in the well, fill up the well with earth and out
of theflesh and bones will grow a plant which shal be called Posto -
the Poppy tree. From this plant will be obtained a drug called opium,
which will either be smoked or swallowed as a wondrous narcotic till
the end of time. If abused, it will generate the consumer one quality
of each of the animals to which Postomani has been transformed. He will
be mischievious like a mouse, fond of milk like a cat, quarlesome like
a dog, filthy like an ape, savage like a boar, high tempered like a
queen".

Red Poppies which grew wild in the fields of Flanders in France are
used as a symbol of remembrance of those who died in the two World
Wars.

This delicately petalled bloom is also known as Summer's kiss. Francis
Thompson (1859-1907) wrote:-

"Summer set lip to earth's bosom bare,
And left the flushed print in a poppy."

Thank your for reading this article, if you have any questions about
it, or would like me to write about your favourite flower, please
e-mail me Marilyn.Cameron@btinternet.com