3'22 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



it subdues weeds readily. Mr. Ravenel of Carolina found it there 

 to come up spontaneously, much better and larger than most other 

 grasses. Height to 6 feet. 



Panicum turgldum, Forskael. 



Egypt, where this millet yields a bread-grain. 



Fanicum virg-atum, Linne, 



North- America. A tall perennial species, with a wide, nutritious 

 panicle. Easily disseminated. Content with sandy soil, but likes 

 some humidity. The foliage good for fodder when young. Frequent 

 on the prairies, but it will grow even also on sandy sea-coasts. It 

 passes in some places as Switch-grass. 



Panicum viride, Linne. (Setaria viridis, Beauvois.) 



Widely spread over many parts of the old world. Though annual, 

 this grass is of value for the first vegation on bare sand-land, over 

 which, as well as over calcareous soil, it spreads with remarkable 

 facility. The same may be said of Panicum glaucum and a few 

 other related species. 



Papaver somniferum, Linne. 



The Opium-Poppy. Countries on the Mediterranean Sea. The 

 capsules of this tall annual, so showy for its flowers, are used for 

 medicinal purposes. From the minute, but exceedingly numerous 

 seeds, oil of a harmless and most palatable kind can be pressed 

 remuneratively : but the still more important use of this plant is 

 for the preparation of opium. Both the black- and pale-seeded 

 varieties can be used for the production of this drug. The return 

 of poppy-culture, whether for opium or for oil, is obtained within a 

 few months. In Hesse Cassel it has recently been proved, that the 

 Poppy-stubbles can well be utilized for sheep-fodder. Mild and 

 somewhat humid open forest-tracts proved most productive for 

 obtaining opium from this plant ; but it can also be reared in colder 

 localities, good opium rich in morphia having 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. Indeed the plant matures its seeds as far north as 

 lat 69 18' in Norway [Schuebeler]. Within the tropics it can also 

 be raised, but best during the cool season. The morphia-contents 

 in opium from Grippsland were on an average somewhat over 10 

 per cent. Opium was prepared in the Melbourne Botanic Gardens 

 for the Exhibition of 1866; but Mr. J. Bosisto and Mr. J. Hood 

 have given first commercial dimensions to this branch of rural 

 industry in Australia. 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. 



