264 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



fixed oil. The commercial supplies are obtained from Asia Minor, 

 Persia, Egypt, China, the East Indies and Europe. The capsules 

 are collected in July when full grown, but still green, and contain 

 their milky juice. They are carefully and rapidly dried over a low 

 burning fire. 



Description. Ellipsoidal, ovoid or depressed globular, from 

 6 to 7 cm. in length and from 4 to 7 cm. in diameter; very light, 

 weighing from 3 to 4 gm.; summit acute or somewhat rounded, 

 occasionally depressed and crowned by the 12- to 18-rayed stigma, 

 base usually tapering into the stalk; externally yellowish-brown or 

 light brown, often marked with nearly circular bluish-black patches, 

 smooth, except in the upper and lower portions, which are glaucous, 

 also marked by slight ridges, indicating the dissepiments; unilocular, 

 and containing numerous seeds; inner surface with numerous, thin, 

 cartilaginous dissepiments, about 10 mm. in width, of a light yellow- 

 .ish-brown color and marked by numerous small, circular, brownish 

 spots, representing groups of stone cells; fruit stalk from 10 to 15 mm. 

 in length, cylindrical, contracted in the middle and spreading into 

 the basal portion of the capsule; internally with a large whitish pith; 

 inodorous; taste bitter and slightly astringent. Seeds (commonly 

 known as Maw seeds), reniform, from 0.5 to 1 mm. in diameter, exter- 

 nally yellowish-white, reticulate and with a small yellowish hilum 

 scar; endosperm white and oily and enclosing a curved embryo; 

 taste slight and oily. 



Inner Structure. Epidermis of pericarp consisting of a layer of 

 cells having strongly thickened outer walls and numerous stomata; 

 hypodermis of one or more layers of tangentially elongated, thick- 

 walled cells; a middle layer of thick-walled parenchyma and vas- 

 cular bundles, the latter having spiral tracheae, latex tubes associated 

 with the leptome and a ring of sclerenchymatous fibers; inner epi- 

 dermis composed of tangentially elongated, thick-walled cells and 

 depressed stomata; the placenta, triangular in section and con- 

 taining numerous simple, more or less branching cells with large inter- 

 cellular spaces. The seed coat consists of an epidermal layer com- 

 posed of polygonal cells; a layer of thin-walled parenchyma cells 

 containing numerous small microcrystals of calcium oxalate; a 

 layer of strongly thickened somewhat spindle-shaped sclerenchy- 

 matous fibers; several layers of either strongly thickened porous 

 cells, or thin-walled cells, or small obliterated cells, some of which in 

 the black poppy seeds contain a brownish pigment. The endosperm 

 consists of thin-walled cells containing an oily cytoplasm and numer- 

 ous small aleurone grains. 



