438 SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. 



CheUdonium majus, Celandine. — This plant is a native of this country, 

 growing in the neighbourhood of villages. It has an orange-coloured juice 

 of a poisonous nature, which is a popular external application for the cure 

 of warts, and has been «sed successfully in opacities of the cornea. It has 

 been also administered internally, and is reputed aperient, diuretic, and 

 stimulant. 



Papaver. — P. somniferum. Opium Poppy. — The valuable drug Opium is the 

 juice, inspissated by spontaneous evaporation, obtained by incisions from the 

 unripe capsules of this plant. It has been known from early times, having 

 been alluded to by Hippocrates, Diagoras, and Dioscorides. Various kinds 

 of opium have been described under the names of Turkey or Smyrna, Con- 

 stantinople, Egyptian, Persian, European, and Indian. Smyrna opium, 

 which is produced in Asia Minor, is that commonly used in this country. 

 Its consumption is largely on the increase; thus, in 1839, the quantity 

 imported into Great Britain was 41,000, and in 1852, 114,000 pounds, and 

 it is much greater at the present time. In India the quantity of opium pro- 

 duced annually is probably not much less than 8,000,000 pounds. Of this 

 enormous quantity, at least five millions of pounds are exported to and 

 consumed in China, representing a market value of about as many pounds 

 sterling. Opium possesses in a marked degree the narcotic properties of 

 the plants of the order from which it is obtained. In large doses it is a 

 narcotic poison. It is also regarded as anodyne, stimulant, and diaphoretic. 

 Its properties are chiefly due to a peculiar alkaloid called Morphia, which 

 is combined with meconic acid. Its properties are also due, to some extent 

 at least, to other peculiar principles which it contains, as Codeia, Narcotine, 

 Narceia, Thebaia or Paramorphia, Meconine, and Meconic acid, as well as 

 some others occasionally found, and of which but little is known. While 

 the juice of the unripe pericarp has been proved to possess such active pro- 

 perties, the seeds are bland and wholesome. They yield by expression an 

 oil which is much used on the Continent, and also in this countiy, as a 

 substitute for olive oil, and for other purposes. It is one of the oils employed 

 for adulterating olive oil. The cake left after the oil has been extracted 

 may te used for fattening cattle. Papaver Rhoeas, the Common Red or 

 Corn Poppy, has scarlet or red petals, as its name implies. A syi-up pre- 

 pared from these petals is used as a colouring ingi-edient by the medical 

 practitioner. The fresh petals are also supposed to possess slight narcotic 

 properties. 



Sanguinaria canadensis, or Puccoon. — The rhizome and rootlets of this 

 plant, which is a native of North America, contain a red juice, from which 

 circumstance it is commonly tei-med Blood-root. This so-called root is used 

 internally in large doses, as an emetic and purgative, and in smaller doses, it 

 is reputed stimulant, diaphoretic, and expectorant. It is also said by Eterle 

 to exercise a sedative influence on the heart, as certain as that of Digitalis. 

 "When applied externally, it has been stated to have well-marked escharotic 

 properties, and has been used, combined with chloride of zinc, as an external 

 application for the destruction of cancerous gi'owths ; from trials in this 

 country, however, it would appear, that if it produced any effect in such 

 cases, it must have been very small. 



Many genera belonging to this order are commonly cultivated in our 

 gardens, as Papaver, Argemone, Roemeria, Plalysteinon, Esr.hscholtzia, &c. 

 The latter plant is remarkable for its enlarged hollow thalamus, from which 

 the calyx separates by transverse dehiscence in the form of a conical cap, 

 resembling the extinguisher of a candle. 



Natural Order 14. Fumariace^e. — The Fumitory Order {figs. 

 859 — 862). — Character. — Smooth herbs v/'ith. a watery juice. 

 Leaves alternate, much divided, exstipiilate. Sepals 2 {fig. 859), 

 deciduous. Petals 4, cruciate, very irregular, in two whorls {fig. 

 859); one or both of the outer petals are saccate or spurred 

 {fig. 861), the two inner frequently united at the apex. Stamens 

 hypogynous, usually 6, diadelphous, the two bundles being 



