386 



PANIC GRASS PAPA W TREE. 



light loam, but have never been brought to flower 

 under such treatment. 



PANIC GRASS is the Paniciim colonum of Lin- 

 naeus, which, with many other species, form one of 

 the largest genera belonging to the order Granrinece. 

 The species are mostly natives of tropical countries. 

 The Panicum mUlaccum is the millet, an agricultural 

 plant, the grain of which is both dietetic and medici- 

 nal. Millet is also much used for feeding poultry. 



PANORPID^E (Leach). A family of heuro- 

 pterous insects, belonging to the section Filicornes, 

 and having five joints in al! the tarsi, and the front of 

 the head produced into a long and narrow beak. 

 The species are comprised in the Linnaean genus Pa- 

 norpa, in which the antennae are setaceous and inserted 

 between the eyes ; the body long, the head vertical, 

 and the prothorax very small. There is ver} r con- 

 siderable diversity in the appearance of the sexes of 

 some of these flies. The family comprises the genera 

 Nemoptera (which see), Bittacus, Panorpa, and Boreas 

 (which see). The typical genus Panorpa, Linnaeus, 

 is distinguished by having the four wings of equal 

 size; the ocelli three in number; the abdomen of the 

 male long and jointed, and terminated by a remark- 

 able instrument like a pair of pincers, so that this 

 part of the body bears considerable resemblance to 

 the tail of the scorpion, whence these flies are termed 

 scorpion-flies ; the abdomen of the female is long and 

 pointed at the tip ; the legs are of moderate length. 

 The type of the genus is the Panorpa commums, Lin- 

 nsDus, which is rather more than half an inch long, of 

 a black colour, with the beak and tip of the abdomen 

 red, and the wings spotted with black. It is very 

 common, and is found in hedges and grass. There 

 are several other nearly-allied British species. 



PANURGUS (Panzer). A genus of bees, be- 

 longing to the family Apuke, and sub-family Andre- 

 noides, Latreille, having the mandibles destitute of 

 teeth ; the terminal joints of the antennae in the 

 females form a sort of spindle-shaped mass of a 

 nearly cylindrical form ; the hind-legs are very hairy, 

 and the wings have only two sub-marginal cells. 

 There are two British species, the type being the 

 Apis urslna of Linnaius. They are of rare occurrence, 

 and their economy is unknown. 



PAPAVERACE^E. A natural order containing 

 twelve genera and above sixty-five species. The 

 poppies and their typical allies are annual or peren- 

 nial herbs (rarely under-shrubs), with milky juices, 

 varying in colour from white to yellow, orange, and 

 crimson. The roots are fibrous, stems round, with 

 alternate simple leaves, either on footstalks or sitting, 

 and without stipules. The flowers are solitary, regu- 

 lar, and on long peduncules. The calyx is of two 

 deciduous sepals, the petals four or some multiple of 

 that number. The stamens are eight, twelve, or six- 

 teen, &c., commonly indefinite and collected into 

 four groups, one near the base of each petal, and 

 hypogynous. The filaments are filiform and free ; the 

 anthers innate and two-celled. The germen is free 

 and symmetrical, formed of two or more united car- 

 pels, sometimes stipitate or sitting, in general one- 

 celled. The style is short, or wanting; and the 

 stigmas two to four, or many, radiant and persistin_ 

 The fruit is a one-celled capsule, opening by \alves 

 or pores. Seeds numerous. 



The twelve or thirteen genera included in this 

 type form a very natural group. In properties they 

 are as accordant as in form, being universally nar- 



cotic, although they differ in the degree in which the 

 sedative principle is evolved. 



The poppies are, many'of them, very ornamental 

 plants ; but their chief importance results from the 

 narcotic powers of their milky juices. They are all 

 more or less soporific ; but the inspissated accretions 

 of Papaver soinniferum and its varieties are believed 

 to afford our chief supplies of opium, although it has 

 been asserted that the best Turkey opium is procured 

 from the P. oricntalc; and other species are believed 

 to be resorted to for the preparation of the drug in 

 Persia and other oriental countries. That the P. 

 somniferum, however, yields it in abundance has been 

 proved by crops grown in this country, and the pre- 

 paration here of English opium, which is reported to 

 have been equal to that imported from India or the 

 Levant, indeed to yield a larger quantity of morphia 

 than that of foreign growth. 



The opium trade is one of considerable importance. 

 In 1829, says Burnett, nearly 50,000 pounds were im- 

 ported into this country, of which 42,804 came 

 directly from Turkey ; 25,000 pounds were re-ex- 

 ported ; so that the annual consumption in the United 

 Kingdom varies from about 20,000 to 25,000 pounds. 

 Its value in bond is seventeen or eighteen shillings 

 per pound, and the duty is four shillings. In England 

 opium is little used, excepting as a medicine ; but in 

 Turkey and China it has escaped from the controul 

 of the physician, and is used largely as a luxurious 

 stimulant, and a substitute for spirituous liquors to 

 produce intoxication. The importation of opium into 

 China is expressly forbidden by law, not, however, 

 on commercial or political, but on moral grounds ; 

 but as this drug is as necessary to a Chinese mandarin 

 as claret or Burgundy wine to an English gentleman, 

 the contraband trade is extensive, amounting to four- 

 teen million Spanish dollars yearly ; and from it 

 alone our Indian government derives an annual reve- 

 nue of 1,800,0007. sterling. Some extraordinary cases 

 are on record of the effects produced by the continued 

 use of opium, the ecstasies it occasions, and the de- 

 plorable condition to which it, in a short time, reduces 

 the infatuated men who eat it ; and yet, from reports 

 collected by Professor Christian, life does not 

 appear to be shortened, nor disease produced. 



The seeds of the poppies are very numerous, each 

 capsule containing about 32,000. They have a nutty 

 flavour, and form a nutritious food. They abound 

 with a bland oil, which, when expressed, may be used 

 as a substitute for olive oil in culinary and other 

 processes. 



The P. rhceas is the corn poppy of Britain, and is 

 a noxious weed among wheat. In some seasons it is 

 much more abundant than in others, especially on 

 light soils ; its appearance, however, depending on 

 the state of the soil when the wheat is sown ; if laid 

 in heavy, not a poppy seed will vegetate ; but if 

 light, and the farmer neglect to roll or tread the land 

 firmly with sheep, his crop will be nearly choked with 

 poppies, and charlock also, in the following summer. 



Besides the Papaver, or poppy, eleven other 

 genera are united in the order, viz., Argemone, Mcco- 

 nopsisj Httnnemannia, Sanguinaria, Bocconia, Macleaya, 

 Rdmeria, EschscJioltzla, Glauclum, Chelidonium, and 

 Hypecoum. 



PAPA W TREE is the Carka papaya of Linnaeus, 

 an East Indian plant, having the altitude of a tree, 

 but the stem and foliage of an herb. It belongs to 

 Cucurbltacece, bearing large fruit like a melon, but by 



