The San Francisco call., 1910-08-21
FLOWER LORE

but the POPPY Is one OF bDe exceptions.
In very early times before the white
man had set foot in the new world,
there was famine in the land. When
winter came and the cold winds blew,
all vegetation was frozen and the In
dians died by the hundreds until there
was left only the Chief Monona and
his young squaw.
Together they started out to find
some place of refuge crossing the fro
zen rivers and climbing the snow
capped mountains, praying all the time
to the great spirit for help. At last
the great spirit heard them. The wind
ceased to blow, the ice and snow melt
ed and everywhere there came forth
bright red flowers, which brought
warmth and plenty to the land, and
the fire flower is dear to the heart OF
the Indian.
IN INDIA, CHINA AND PERSIA
In this country the poppy is chiefly
an ornamental flower, but in India,
China and Persia it is of great COM
mercial value. The poppy fields of
China are as renowned as the wheat
fields of the Dakotas. One writer says:
For five days we Travelled through
fields Of poppies" The poppy is being
cultivated at the expense of rice, which
is double the price it was 10 years ago.
In the middle of the nineteenth CEN
tury the poppy was indirectly the
cause of war between England and
China, known as the opium war;" that
was terminated in August, 1912, by the
celebrated Nanking treaty, which re-
suited in the opening of China.
IN MEXICO
When the Archduke Maximilian and
his beautiful wife, the unfortunate Car
lotta, crossed the sea to establish an
empire in Mexico, they wished to in
stitute an order, corresponding to the
Legion of Honor in France and the
knights of the Garter in England, and
the empress decided that the color of
the ribbon should be bright red. Ma
poleon III objected, as red was the
color of the Legion of Honor. but Car
lotta inclosed a poppy leaf in letter
and wrote him that the Order of Ma
ture antedated the Legion of Honor,
and that she should copy that.
CALIFORNIA; STATE FLOWER
California was the first state to
adopt flower emblem and the popu-
lar choice fell upon the golden
poppy" a most appropriate selection,
as the flower grows wild in great pro-
fusion in all parts of the state. In
1S49. when the rush for gold first be-
gan in the western Ell Dorado, the In
dians believed that the leaves of the
great spirit flower, dropping year
after year, sank into the earth and
were changed into the yellow metal
that the white man held so precious.
The Spanish name of the golden
poppy is "copa de orc" coup of gold)
and one OF our poets has written of it:
Copa de oro, chailice of gold,
Who fashioned thee so daintily whose
hand did hold
The graver that chased thy rounded
brim?
Old Tubal Cain could strive in vain to
equal him.
THE POPPY IN LITERATURE
The poppy is more of a favorite
with modern writers than with the
ancients. Perhaps this may be ac-
counted for by the fact that in olden
times the flower was associated with
death. Shakespeare mentions it once
when Iago refers to the narcotic prop
critics OF the plant. Keats makes nu-
merous references to it, and Leigh
Hunt and Bayard Taylor have both
written rather sadly OF the poppy.
Burns refers to it's withering quickly,
when he writes
Pleasures are like poppies spread
You seize the flower, it's bloom is shed.
And an unknown poet has written:
For happy hours the rose will idly
blow;
The poppy hath a chain for pain and
woe.
Next Sunday-Tbe Pansy)