SANGUINARIA CANADENSIS. 17 
lobose, seeds black, and a purplish-coloured flower. The stems in this kind are more 
1. i, oe athe are large, ovate, lance-shaped, lobed, and the whole plant is hispidulous. 
2. Album. Capsules ovate, large ; seeds white; flowers large, white, on single peduncles ; leaves oblong, dentate, 
incised ; e plant smooth and glaucous. 
rs se son Nadishies are sected in the gardens of Europe and this country. : 
The Opium Poppy is an inhabitant of Asia, where it is cultivated for its peculiar product. Asia Minor, Persia, 
and Hindostan, are Opium-producing countries. Egypt is also the source of some of the article. The original country 
of the Poppy, however, is difficult to be determined, as the plant is of extreme antiquity. The two varieties seem also 
to have been known as far back as the time of Hippocrates. Royle says that the “ White Poppy is now cultivated in 
the plains of India, and the black or rather deep-red variety, in the Himalayan Mountains.” Eo 
In Europe, the Poppy is cultivated for the sake of the heads and the seeds, from which the oil is extracted. The 
first are used for medicinal purposes, and the latter as a nutriment. ‘The oil is employed for culinary purposes, or in 
“g aaa is obtained from the plant in several ways. When the unripe capsules are incised, a thick viscid milk-like 
juice exudes, which hardens into tears; this is the purest Opium. The heads, however, are subsequently bruised, and 
the juice, after being pressed out, is inspissated. The two are usually commingled in Opium, and an inferior quality 
still is procured by decocting the capsules and leaves. The Opium of commerce is therefore a fabricated article, and 
depends for its purity, independent of adventitious substances introduced for the purpose of adulteration, upon the 
modes of manufacture. 
No less than eight varieties of Opium are mentioned by Pereira, possessing distinctive characters, and named in 
accordance with the place of production. ‘The production of Opium in the East is immense, where its degrading and 
destructive influence is far spread and of general prevalence. It is much to be regretted, that civilized nations, who 
pride themselves upon their religion and refinement, should have lent their aid to the perpetuation of pernicious indul- 
gence in an article, which, when confined to its legitimate use, the alleviation of pain and disease, is among the most 
valuable of medicinal agents. : 
Puiate [X.—Represents the plant, flower, and capsule of the Black Poppy. 
SANGUINARIA CANADENSIS 
= LINNAEUS. | 
BLOODROOT. 
Sex. Syst.—Polyandria, Monogynia. 
GEN. Cuar.—Calyz pentaphyllous, deciduous. Petals eioh } seSSl : i 
3 1S, = ight. Stzgma sessile, two-grooved. Capsule superior, 
oblong, one-celled, two-valved ; apex attenuated. Receptacles two, filiform, marginal. (Nuttall.) - 
Toseegrh oe tuberous, horizontal, giving out a reddish and very acrid Juice. Leaves solitary, radical, 
ce |. Scape naked, one-flowered, sheathed at the base. Petals variable in number. April. Perennial 
: hao called Bloodroot from the red colour of the root, which, when wounded, pours out a alksiety of red 
e he = hi : e Pw, issues from the stal ks of the leaves and the meer, but to a less ment Poe It is also known 
{t grows throughout the United States, a pearin i early peri ‘y | 
; ’ in re) oods +: * . * * 
_ Ornamental from its handsome white flowers. a g im open woods at'an early period of the spring, and is highly 
The root is horizontal from an inch to two in length, and nearl | inch in di i 
terminating ales , y half an inch in diameter, thicker at the summit 
! abruptly as if bitten off (premorse), fleshy, succulent, and beset with slender red fibres or radicles. ie 
from the ground during the summer, and when dried becomes dark-brown externally, contracted, wrinkled, and. 
Somewhat twisted. Tt then breaks with i 
salt coe a breaks h a short waxy fracture, presenting an orange-red col 2g 
VOL ‘ He edour is feebly narcotic, disagreeable, but lost in a "te colour upon the fractured 
; measure by drying. Its taste is acrid and bitter. 
