214 FLORA HrSTORlCA, 



The quantity of opium consumed in this coun- 

 try annually is about fifty thousand pounds, and 

 it is now made in this country quite equal in all 

 its deadening and dangerous qualities to the best 

 which can be procured from Turkey. 



Messrs. Cowley and Staines, of Winslow, 

 Bucks, procured in the year 1821, sixty pounds 

 of solid opium from rather less than four acres 

 and a half of land. The seed was sown in 

 February, and the gathering commenced in the 

 latter end of July, when the Poppies had lost 

 their petals, and were covered with a bluish- 

 white bloom. 



Opium having found its way into China, is 

 become almost a necessary of life with the Chi- 

 nese, yet its importation is strictly confined to 

 Canton. We most earnestly hope that its use 

 will never get out of the hands of the medical 

 practitioners in this country, for where it does 

 not kill, it enervates the constitution, and dead- 

 ens all lively energies by its malignant influ- 

 ence, until it changes the character of a whole 

 country. 



In the time of Gesner, the village Damons 

 and Phillises proved the sincerity of their lovers 

 by placing a petal of the Poppy in the hollow 

 of the palm of the left hand, which, on being 

 struck by the other hand, gave a sound that 



