* 
variety is met with in the Himalayas. 
_ the Ganges, bounded by Dinajpur in the east, Hazaribagh 
throughout the plains of the Py 
itis cultivated up t 
_ it from the root wr? others from wl, 
74 PAPAVERACE®. 
find that it was known to the Greeks in the beginning of the’ 
third century, B. C., and was probably first collected and pre : 
pared in Asia Minor. The Arabians next became acquainted 
with it, and converted the Greek name Opion into Afiyfi 
some of their writers mention this derivation, and say that 
Greek word means soporific.* It is generally supposed 
the Persians and Indians became. acquainted with opi 
through the Arabians; but some Persian writers suppose 
the Tiryak which Rustum obtained from Kaikéous to giv 
Sohrab was opium. For a further account of the history 
the drug, the Pharmacogr aphia and other standard work 
Materia Medica may be consulted. 
‘The principal opi 
producing region of British India lies in the central trac 
south, Gorakhpur in the north, and Agra in the west, 
including the districts of Behar and Benares. In 1886: 
919,852 bighas of land were under poppy cultivation 
those districts. The next important opium-producing 
embraces the table lands of Malwa, and the slopes of 
Vindhya Hills: it is stated that the variety grown there 
P. glabrum. The poppy is also grown, but to a smaller e 
njab, but less commonly in 
N.-W. Provinces. In the valley of the Beas, east of Lahe 
oO an altitude of nearly 7,500 feet. 
the outer districts grow p 
opium for local use, i 
and in Kulu, forms.a Staple article of trade for that regi 
Opium is also produced in Nipal, Baisahir and Rampur, and 
Doda Kashtivar, in the Jammu territory: in the Nundi 
district in Mysore, in the Baldasuch district of West Berar. 
in Assam. . 
xe omtov, Latin, Opium or Opion. Plin. 20, 76. Poppy juice. The A 
lexicographers regard the word as Arabic, the author of the Kamtis 
Paka a 
