BOTANIC MATERIA MEDICA, 245 
varieties have an aromatic flavor, and bitter, 
aromatic and agreeable taste and are highly 
esteemed and much used asaflavor. The Pen- 
ang and Singapore nutmegs are unlimed, whilst 
the Dutch are all limed. This is done for the 
purpose of destroying the vitality of the seed. 
Nutmegs contain a small quantity of volatile 
oil—not over 8 per cent—and about 25 per cent 
of fixed oil, which really is afat or butter, also | 
starch, mucilage and proteids. Nutmegs are 
used so generally as a flavor that we can hardly 
look upon them as a remedy, and yet they have 
strong stimulating and stomachic properties 
and enter into a number of officinal prepara- 
tions, such as the Aromatic Spts. of Ammonia, 
Pulvis Crete Co., Pulv. Aromaticus, Spts. 
Lavendula Comp., etc. Origin somewhat ob- 
scure and uncertain. Many authors agree that 
they were used as a medicine and flavor as 
early as the gth century. 
Papaver Somniferum, White Poppy.—Nat- 
ural order Papaveraceze, This annual plant is 
a native of Asia and attains a height of 2 to 4 
feet, with a round stem of a yellowish-green 
color, adorned with large sessile leaves, which 
are deeply cut and toothed; flowers white and 
inclining to purple, with four petals; fruit (cap- 
sule) globular and smooth, crowned by a deeply 
cut circular disc. Internally they have many 
partitions (septum) containing numerous white 
or brownish-white seeds, somewhat kidney- 
shaped. There are three species mentioned by 
the older writers, the black, white and wild 
poppies. The capsule of the black is more 
globe-like in form than the white, whilst the 
