66 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF‘: | Papaveracee. 
radicles, and which are generally employed for procuring young plants. It is not 
uninteresting to remark, that the Egyptian mode of sowing Nelumbium speciosum, the 
Egyptian bean of Pythagoras, bakla koobtee, Coptic bean of Persian authors, by enclosing 
it in a ball of clay before throwing it into the water, is still practised in India. 
9. PAPAVERACE. 
The Papaveracee inhabit every part of Europe, and the northern parts of Asia: one 
species extends as far north as Melville Island, and some new genera, as Eschscholtzia, 
have been lately discovered’ in California. We do not’ find them forming any portion 
of the Flora of the plains of India, but Argemone Mexicana is so naturalized every 
where as to appear indigenous, and the Poppy forms so extensive an article of cultiva- 
tion, as to yield a revenue ‘of nearly two millions annually: a remarkable instance of 
the benefits to be derived by one country from acclimating the productions of another, 
when its own climate, soil, &c. are favourable for the attempt. The Poppy was probably 
introduced into India from Persia, as the cominon Indian name post is one of the Persian 
names for the poppy-head; and the Arabic khushikhush is probably the original of some 
other of the Asiatic synonimes, perhaps even of the Sanscrit chosa. Opium is described 
in Indian works on Materia Medica, under the name afeeoon, aphim, evidently derived 
from the Greek; apaynum is given by Dr. Ainslie as the Sanscrit name. Both the white 
and red varieties are to be found cultivated in India, and both yield opium of an_ 
excellent quality. The white is generally cultivated in the plains, and the red I have 
seen at Chowrass in the hills, at 7,000 feet of elevation. P. dubium and varieties 
of Papaver Rhoeas are found in the gardens of Northern India, having been intro- 
duced by either or both its English and Persian conquerors. The species which I 
have named P. glabrum, closely allied to P..Caucasicum; isthe only one of the genus 
Papaver which can be said to belong to the Flora of India, as I have found it in 
several places in the corn-fields in the hills, at elevations of from 5,000 to 7,000 feet. 
The Himalayas, however, possess three species of the genus Meconopsis, of which the 
other species are found in the colder parts of Europe and in North America. 
The valuable nature of opium, whether considered as a medicine, or as an article of 
commerce, is too well known even to be alluded to here, were it not for the prevalence 
of the idea, that East-India opium is always, and some seem to think necessarily infe- 
rior to every other. This opinion has originated in the opium, which is the produce 
of Patna, being the best known in Europe, and that upon which experiments have been 
principally made. This is no doubt of an inferior quality, in some measure perhaps 
owing to the climate of the Lower Provinces not being so favourable for its culture as 
some others, but a great deal more to the mode of preparation, and even adulteration, 
to which the Patna opium is understood to be frequently subjected: by which, though 
rendered inferior as a medicine, it becomes more palatable to the Chinese, its principal 
consumers, — That much better opium can however be made at Patna than was formerly 
the case, is evident from the great improvement which has of late years taken place in 
the 
