rorpv. 233 



Virgil compares a beautiful youth dying, to a poppy over- 

 powered by rain; — 



" Purpureas veluti cum flos succisus aratro 

 Languescit raoriens ; lassove papavera collo 

 Demisere caput, pluvia cum forte gravantur." * 



JEn. Book IX. v. 435. 



General Uses. — The foliage of this plant, it appears, may 

 be used for culinary purposes. Sibthorpe saw an old woman 

 in Arcadia gather the leaves of wild Poppy with those of dock 

 for her supper. The seeds are used in Poland and some parts 

 of Russia as an ingredient in soups, and to make gruel and 

 porridge. The bright scarlet petals impart their colour to 

 water, and this with the addition of vitriolic acid is stated to 

 dye cloth, linen, silk and cotton of a beautiful deep red shade. 

 It is likewise asserted that the stuffs previously immersed in a 

 solution of bismuth acquire a yellow cast. 



Qualities, &c. — The recent flowers have a tolerably strong 

 odour, of the disagreeable narcotic kind, and a mucilaginous 

 slightly bitter taste ; they impart their red colour to water and 

 partly to spirit. The aqueous infusion f is blackened by sul- 

 phate of iron, and is rendered dark purple by the alkalies. 

 The unripe capsules furnish by incision a yellowish milky 

 juice, resembling genuine opium. Four ounces of the capsules 

 according to Murray J, furnish by decoction and evaporation, 

 five drachms of opiaceous extract. 



Medicinal Properties and Uses. — This plant, which is 

 retained in the present Materia Medica, only for the sake of 

 the fine colour which the petals impart to an officinal syrup, 

 was in high repute with some of our former writers. In 

 properties the Red Poppy (petal) is slightly sudorific and 

 anodyne ; hence it has been recommended in most diseases 



* See also Homer's Iliad, (Book viii.) from which this simile is borrowed. 



-|- u The infusion prepared in the shops by pouring four and a half pints 

 of boiling water on four pounds of the fresh flowers, is stirred over the fire 

 till the flowers are all immerged, and is then set by to steep for the night : 

 without the application of fire, so as to scald or shrink the flowers a little, 

 they can scarcely be moistened with water ; if the heat is continued longer 

 than this effect is produced, the liquor turns out quite slimy. This infusion 

 pressed out and depurated by settling, is reduced by a proper addition of 

 sugar into a deep red syrup.'"'— Lewis's Mat. Med. p. 421. 



$ App. Med. vol. ii. p. 252. 

 VOL. II. R 



