OCR Text |
Show WHITE POPPY. 509 has a reddish brown colour, inclining to black, and a strong peculiar smell. Six hundred thousand pounds of it are annually exported from the Ganges! It is remarkable that the seeds pose sess not any or a veryslight narcotic quality. They consist of a simple farinaceous matter, united with a bland oil, and serve as food in some countries, and are given to fatten poultry. The manner in which this drug is collected in the East has been described long ago by Kempfer and others; but the most circumstantial detail of it is given by Mr. Kerr, in the fifth vos lume of Medical Observations and Inquiries. When the capsules are half grown, at sun-set, they make two longitudinal double incisions, passing from below upwards, and taking care not to penetrate the internal cavity. In Persia, acs cording to Kempfer, a five-pointed knife is used for this purpose. The incisions are repeated every evening, until each capsule has received six or eight wounds: they are then allowed to ripen their seeds. Ifthe wound were to be made in the heat of the day, a cicatrix would be too soon formed. The night dews favour the exstillation of the juice. WHITE POPPY. PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM. Class XYII. Polyandria. Order I. Monogynia. Essent. Gen. Cuar. Corolla four petals: Calyx twoleaved: Capsule one-celled, gapin g with pores, arising from a permanent, and, when ripe, an upright stigma. s ‘ee spec. Cusr, cisions, aa : i Calyx and Capsules ; ae smooth: Leaves amplexicaul, with in- DESCRIPTION. His ‘ plant rises two or threefeet in height. The leaves are alternate, ovate, smooth, deeply cut into various segments, and closely embra ce the stem. are large and terminal . crown covering the carp. Whole in an earthen pot, where it is worked by the hand in the Open sunshine, antil it becomes of a considerable thickness: it is then formed into cakes of a globular shape, and about four pounds in weight, and laidinto little earthen basins to be further dried. These cakes are then covered over with poppy or to. bacco leaves, and thus dried until they are fit for sale. Opium is frequently adulterated with cow dung, the extract of the plant procured by boiling, and various other substances of which they make a secret. Se _ "i Karly in the morning, old women, boys, and girls collect the juice, by scraping it off with a small iron scoop, and deposit the The calyx soon drops, the flowe rs The stigma is a large flat radiated germen, which afterward becom es the periHISTORY. The white poppy original ly came from Asia, and is there much cultivated, and it produces the opium import ed from thence, which comes to us in flat cakes covered with leaves : it It appears that the poppy maybe cultivated for the purpose of obtaining opium to great advantage in Britain. Professor Alston, of Edinburgh, said long since, that the milky juice, drawn by incision from poppy heads, and thickened eitherin the sun or shade, has also the characters of good opium; its colour, consistence, taste, smell, faculties, phenomena, are all the same; only, if carefully collected, it is more pure andfree from feculencies. Similar remarks have been made by others; to which, says Dr. Woodville, we may add our own; for during that summer |