74 



FLORA HOMCEOPATHICA. 



check morbidly increased evacuations, and diminish morbid 

 sensibility."* 



Description.— The white and somniferous Poppy is an 

 annual, flowering in June in Europe, and in February in 

 India. The root is white and tapering, with several strong 

 fibres. The stem is upright, three to four feet high, branched, 

 leafy, smooth, and glaucous. The leaves are alternate, large, 

 wavy, irregularly lobed, cut or deeply serrated, and clasping 

 the stem by their broad, heart-shaped base. The flowers are 

 large, drooping while in the bud, but becoming upright as the 

 corolla expands. Petals purplish-white, with a large violet 

 spot at the base of each. Germen nearly globular, sometimes 

 furrowed. Seeds very numerous, kidney-shaped, reticulated, 

 oily, sweet, and eatable. The whole plant is glaucous and 

 smooth, except that the flower-stalks sometimes bear a few 

 scattered, spreading, bristly hairs. Many fine varieties, with 

 double flowers of every shade of purple, scarlet, crimson, 

 and even green mixed with white, are not uncommon in 

 gardens. 



Geographical Distribution — Papaver somniferum 

 native of the East ; extensively cultivated in Turkey, Persia, 

 and India, and other warm climates ; but has become naturalized 

 in the south of Europe, Great Britain, etc. 



Localities. — In this country, on sandy ground, in fens and 

 uncultivated places. Oxfordshire : near the Observatory, Oxford ; 

 cornfields at Mapledurham, plentiful. Cambridgeshire : Water- 

 beach Fen. Devon: between Sidmouth and Branscombe. 

 Durham : Willington. Kent : cornfields about Dartford ; near 

 the Medway at Rochester. Norfolk : on the banks of all the 

 fen ditches where the soil is sandy. Staffordshire: moat of 



* The preparations of Opium in chemists' shops are most uncertain in their 

 strength. The Lancet (Jan. 29, 1853) has the following remarks :— « Ili s (the 

 physician's) prescription may he sent to half a dozen chemists, without any two 

 of them supplying his patient with the quantity of Opium that he wishes to take , 

 neither does the reputation of the chemist nor the sum that is given for the 

 medicine offer any additional security." 



is a 



