OPIUM PLANT, 215 



plant in Britain, if not in Europe, from seeds sent to his friend 

 Dr. Guthrie of St. Petersburg, from the mountains of Ghiam, in 

 Persia: but the plant at present regarded as genuine is a different 

 species, a native of the north ; the former is now denominated Fe- 

 rula Persica. 



[Amccnitates. Exoticce. IVildenoze. Woodville. 



SECTION XXIX. 



Opium Plant. 

 Papavcr Somniferam. Wilde*. 



The poppy genus contains nine species, of which two are em- 

 ployed in medicine. 1. P. rhceas, or wild globular-headed poppy, 

 common to our corn-fields, and flowering in June and July, the 

 flowers of which are said to be slightly anodyne, but which are 

 chiefly made use of on account of their elegant red hue, being for 

 the sake of the hue boiled and preserved as a syrup; and 2. P. som. 

 niferum, the article immediately before us. 'Hie root of this is 

 annual, tapering, and branched ; the stalk is round, smooth, erect, 

 often branched, of a glaucous green colour, and rises two or three 

 feet in height; tiie leaves are alternate, large, ovate, lobed, smooth, 

 deeply cut into various segments, and closely embrace the stalk ; 

 the flowers are very large, terminal, and usually white or purplish ; 

 the calyx consists of two leaves, which are ovate, smooth, concave, 

 bifid, and fall off on the opening of the flower : the corolla consists 

 of four petals, which are large, roundish, entire, undulated ; the 

 filaments are numerous, slender, much shorter than the corol, and 

 furnished with oblong erect compressed anthers; the germ is 

 l ar g e > globular, and upon it is placed the stigma, which is large, flat, 

 radiated, and forms a kind of crown ; the capsule is one-celled, 

 smooth, divided half way into many celh, which open by several 

 apertures beneath the crown, and contain very numerous small 

 white seeds. It is a native of England, usually growing in neglected 

 gardens, or uncultivated rich grounds, and flowers in July and 

 August. 



This species is said to have been named white poppy from the 

 whiteness of its seeds ; a variety of it, however, is well known to 

 produce black seeds: the double-flowered white poppy is also 



P4 



