IN EXTRA-TROPICAL COUNTRIES. 225 



this plant ; but it can be reared also in colder localities, good opium 

 rich in morphia haying even been obtained in Middle Europe and the 

 Northern United States, the summers there being sufficiently long 

 to ripen the poppy with a well-elaborated sap. The morphia con- 

 tents in opium from Gippsland were at an average somewhat over 

 10 per cent. Opium was prepared in the Melbourne Botanic 

 Gardens for the Exhibition of 1866; but particularly Mr. J. Bosisto 

 and Mr. J. Hood have given to this branch of rural industry there 

 commercial dimensions. .The Smyrna variety is particularly 

 desirable for opium ; it enables the cultivator to get from 40 Ibs. to 

 75 Ibs. of opium from an acre, generally worth 30s. to 35s. per 

 pound. The ground for poppy culture must be naturally rich or 

 otherwise be well manured ; dressing with ashes increases the 

 fecundity of the plant. The seed, about 9 Ibs. to an acre, is gener- 

 ally sown broadcast mixed with sand. In the most favourable 

 places as many as three crops are obtained during a season. The 

 collecting of the opium, which consists merely of the indurating 

 sap of the seed-vessels, is commenced a few days after the lapse of 

 the petals. Superficial horizontal or diagonal incisions are made 

 into the capsules as they successively advance to maturity. This 

 operation is best performed in the afternoons and evenings, and 

 requires no laborious toil. The milky opium sap thus directed out- 

 wards is scraped off next morning into a shallow cup and allowed 

 to dry on a place away from sunlight ; it may also be placed on 

 poppy leaves. From one to six successive incisions are made to 

 exhaust the sap, according to season, particular locality, or the 

 knife-like instrument employed. In the Department of Somme 

 (France) alone opium to the value of 70,000 annually is produced 

 and poppy seed to the value of 170,000. Australian seasons as a 

 rule are favourable for collecting opium, and thus this culture is here 

 rendered less precarious than in many other countries. Our opium 

 has proved as good as the best Smyrna kinds. The petals are dried 

 for packing the opium. The main value of opium depends on its 

 contents of morphia, for which the genus Papaver as far as hitherto 

 known, remains the sole source. But not less than fourteen alkaloids 

 have been revealed in opium by the progressive strides of organic 

 chemistry : Codein, metamorphin, morphia or morphin, narcein, 

 narcotin, opiahin, papaverin, porphyroxin, xanthopin, meconidin, 

 codamin, laudanin, pseudo-morphin, and thebain. It contains 

 besides an indifferent bitter principle : meconin and meconic acid 

 (vide "Wittstein's Chemische Analyse von Pflanzentheilen," my 

 edit., p. 163). Various species of Papaver produce more or less 

 opium and morphia. 



Pappea Capensis, Ecklon and Zeyher. 



South Africa. The fruit of this tree is of the size of a cherry, 

 savoury and edible. 



