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Poppy Seeds
Tuesday 29th August 2000, 2/3, West Yorkshire
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IT'S HARD
TO BELIEVE that something as fleeting as a Poppy flower gives
rise to something as substantial as these poppy seed-heads. The
Opium Poppies in the border are attractive subjects to sketch
because they have such well-defined form. They're like treen - those
small antique domestic wooden objects - or like the carvings of
Grinling Gibbons, the baroque wood-carver.
Each seed capsule is crowned, like a Queen in a chess set, with
a perforated seed-shaker. The seeds rattle around inside like salt
in a salt pot.
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The oil-rich seeds of the
poppy are like mini-cannon balls. They can remain viable in the ground
for long periods, awaiting favourable conditions. It been said that when
a farmer ploughs deep he brings up weeds from Napoleon's day. Certainly
when new roads are made drifts of poppies spring up on the verges but
they are soon shaded out by grasses and taller weeds.
Blue Tits nibble at the seed-cases, apparently to get at the seeds
inside. They might also be searching for spiders or insects.
'The iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy,
and deals with the memory of men without distinction to merit perpetuity.'
Sir Thomas Browne, Urn Burial, 1658.
Sir Thomas (1605-1682) had a way with words but he has been criticised
for acting as a witness in the trial of two women condemned as witches
in 1664.
The herbalist Gerrard was aware of the narcotic powers of opium,
but warned its the dangers of an overdose.
Related Links
An account of the Lowestoft
Witch Trial printed in 1682 ('Dr. Brown of Norwich, a Person
of great knowledge' turns up in paragraph 44; the subsequent demonstration
of bewitchment organised by the court sounds like a scene from Arthur
Miller's The Crucible).
Richard Bell,
wildlife illustrator
E-mail; 'richard@daelnet.co.uk'
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