Papaver 



seems to be the round prickly-headed poppy of our 

 chalk fields, while his black poppy is our common 

 scarlet poppy, with the globose and smooth seed 

 vessel. 



Of the opium poppy there are two varieties still 

 cultivated in Italy, but in ancient days, while both 

 were grown for their seeds, perhaps only one was 

 grown for opium. It is not clear whether it was 

 grown for this end in Italy, for the drug seems 

 generally to have been imported. This kind, known 

 as P. officinale, has an ovoid capsule and white 

 seeds. It is not, I think, common in our gardens. 

 The other variety, P. hortense, has a globular cap- 

 sule and black — or at least dark — seeds. This kind 

 is common in our gardens, and has established itself 

 about Cobham and elsewhere in Kent. In a wild 

 state both varieties have white petals slightly tinged 

 with lilac, and carrying a purple blotch at the base. 

 Under cultivation the flowers often are red or crimson 

 on pure white and frequently double. 



Our plant is probably a native of Mediterranean 

 Europe and spread eastward with unhappy results. 

 The capsules abound in opium or hashish, which is 

 obtained through incisions made in them as they 

 ripen, the juice coagulating in the night. The seeds, 

 for which the Romans grew the plant, have no nar- 

 cotic properties, and their oil could be a substitute 

 for the juice of the olive. Unground they were used 

 like our caraway seeds in cakes. This may be one 

 reason for our poet's epithet of ' Cereale,' but no 

 doubt he was thinking also of the frequent repre- 



97 h 



