Lesson CLVI

The California Poppy

Leading thought—The California poppy is a native of California. It blossoms during the months of February, March and April in greatest abundance. It is found in the desert as well as among the foothills.

Method—If possible, the students should study this in the garden. In the East, it flowers until frost comes, and affords a delightful subject for a September lesson. In California it should be studied in the spring, when the hills are covered with them. But the plant may be brought into the schoolroom, root and all, and placed in a jar, under which conditions it will continue to blossom.

Observations—1. Look at the California poppy as a whole and tell, if you can, why it is so beautiful when in blossom.

2. Look at the flower bud. What sort of a stem has it? What is the shape of the stem just below the bud? What is the color of the little rim on which the bud rests? What peculiarity has this bud? Describe the little cap.

3. Watch a flower unfold. What happens to the “toboggan cap?” How does the bud look after the cap is gone? What is its appearance when the petals first open? When they are completely open?

4. Describe the anthers. How do they stand when the flower first opens? How later? Can you see the stigmas at first? Describe them as they look later.

5. Does the poppy remain open at night? Does it remain open during cloudy or rainy weather? Why?

6. Do the petals have the same position that they did in the bud? As the flower matures, note how each petal curls. Do they all fall at once? Are there any anthers left after the petals fall?

7. How does the little pod look when the petals first fall? What happens to it later? Note the little rim at its base. Cut the seed-pod open lengthwise, examine the seeds with a lens, and describe how they are fastened to the sides of the pod. Are the ribs straight from end to end in the pod at first? Do they remain in this position? How does the pod open and scatter its seeds?

8. Study the leaf of this California poppy. Describe how it joins the stem. Sketch a leaf showing its chief divisions into leaflets and how each leaflet is divided. Note that the juice of the stem has the peculiar odor of muriatic acid.

9. Look at the root. Do you think it is fitted to sustain the plant through a long, dry summer? What kind of summers do they have in California? Where does the poppy grow wild?

10. Read all the accounts you can find of the California poppy, and write a little theme describing why it was chosen as the flower of that great State, and how it came by its name.

In a low brown meadow on a day
Down by the autumn sea,
I saw a flash of sudden light
In a sweep of lonely gray;
As if a star in a clouded night
One moment had looked on me
And then withdrawn; as if the spring
Had sent an oriole back to sing
A silent song in color, where
Other silence was too hard to bear.

I found it and left it in its place,
The sun-born flower in cloth of gold
That April owns, but cannot hold
From spending its glory and its grace
On months that always love it less,
But take its splendid alms in their distress.
Back I went through the gray and the brown,
Through the weed-woven trail to the distant town;
The flower went with me, fairly wrought
Into the finest fiber of my thought.

—A California Poppy in November, Irene Hardy.