182 MEDICINAL AND POISONOUS PLANTS 



Out of the large number of drugs consisting of or containing 

 poisonous alkaloids the few following may be taken as familiar 

 examples: opium, tobacco, coca, atropine, quinine, strychnine, 

 and aconite. 



Opium is the dried milky juice which flows from wounds, 

 made in the seed-pods of the opium poppy (Fig. 172). It 



Fig. 172, I. — Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum. Poppy Family, Papaver- 

 acea). Flowering and fruiting top. (Baillon.) — An annual about 

 1 m. tall; leaves pale green; flowers white, red, or purplish; fruit dry, 

 smooth. Native home, iSIediterranean region. 



has been found to contain twenty different alkaloids. Of 

 these morphine (C17H19NO3) is the most important. The 

 chief uses of opium in medicine are to relax spasm, reheve 

 pain, and induce sleep. Among various oriental peoples large 

 quantities are consumed bj^ smoking and in other ways as an 



