22 OPIUM : 



that this article when bought in shops has mixed with it pieces of the skin of the 

 capsule. It is a sour astringent, and can cure, etc. Especially is the elixir I-li-chin- 

 tan, made with it, useful for curing a hundred diseases." 



17. 



Poppy as a flower. In the T'u-shu-chi-ch'eng we find a passage from a work on flowers by an 



author named WANG SHIH-MOU (] 1ft H), who lived at the end of the sixteenth 

 century.* He says, " After the paeony (shao-yao) the Poppy is the most beautiful 

 of flowers, and grows most luxuriantly. It changes readily. If care be taken in 

 watering and planting, it becomes very handsome, and assumes a thousand varieties 

 of shape and colour. It even becomes yellow or green. Looked at from a distance 

 it is lovely ; when nearer it becomes less attractive. I have heard that the seeds 

 can be used as food, and have a strongly astringent effect." 



In the work on flowers published in the time of KANG Hsi, under the name 

 Kuang-ch'iin-fang-p'u, there is a poem on the Poppy by Wu YU-P'EI (^ &jj ig), of the 

 MING dynasty. " In the court which fronts the hall, a long way down, when the 

 daylight is lengthened, before the terrace are flowers of the genii breathing out 

 abundant fragrance. A vapour encircles them, and there are rain drops upon them, 

 where they put forth their lovely forms. They have a red tint and glossy lustre, 

 and their appearance is beautiful. They are sown in mid-autumn and must wait 

 for the coming year. They open their flowers in early summer and are companions 

 to the declining sun. Another thing to be praised is their seeds, heaped up in large 

 capsules one after the other. Why, then, be content with what is ugly and only 

 gather rice and such-like grain ?" 



In the T'u-shu-chi-ch'eng there is a passage from a work called Ts'ao-hua-p'u 

 (H % If )> the book of plants and flowers, which says, " The Poppy has a thousand 

 petals and all the five colours. Its petals are shorter than those of the flower 

 called yii-mei-jen, and more graceful. Through the whole garden the spring alighting 

 upon them they seem to fly as they move to the breeze. The seeds are sown 

 in spring." 



* He died 1590. See Biography 175 ia Ming History. 



