336 FLORA DOMESTICA. 



The Common White Poppy called by the French, le 

 pavot des jardins ; and in Italian, papavero domestico 

 from which chiefly the opium is extracted, is a native of 

 Asia ; it grows five or six feet high. 



It is chiefly from the seed-vessels of the White Poppy 

 that opium is obtained ; but some persons have proposed 

 to substitute the double Red Garden-poppy for the pro- 

 duction of this juice; which is come into such frequent 

 use, that the average quantity consumed in Great Britain 

 is no less than 14,400 Ibs. yearly of Turkey opium. This 

 juice is collected from the White Poppy, grown at about 

 six or eight inches distance from each other, and well 

 watered, until the capsules are half-grown, when the 

 watering is stopped, and the opium is begun to be col- 

 lected by making at sunset two cuts on the surface of the 

 capsules from below upwards, without penetrating into the 

 cavity, with an instrument that has two points as fine as 

 those of lancets ; this is repeated for three or four evenings, 

 when the capsules are then allowed to ripen their seeds. 

 The juice that exudes is collected in the morning, and dried 

 in the sun. An inferior kind of opium is made from the 

 Poppy in the East Indies, and the monopoly of buying it 

 up from the cultivators constitutes the third source of the 

 territorial revenue of the English East India Company, to 

 whom this monopoly produces a million sterling. 



Several attempts have been made to collect opium from 

 Poppies grown in England or Scotland. Mr. Young sowed 

 his Poppies for this purpose in April, and found them 

 ready for bleeding in July. The cuts are made by two 

 knives tied together, with guards on their blades, that they 

 may not cut deeper than about the sixteenth part of an 

 inch. The juice that exudes is immediately wiped oft* 

 with a small painters 1 brush, called by them a sash-tool, 

 rounded a little at the point. When this brush is suf- 



