COCCULUS INDICUS 89 



Uses. Cocculus indicus is now used almost exclusively for the 

 preparation of picrotoxin, which is a powerful convulsive poison ; it 

 has been given internally to check the night-sweating of phthisis ; and 

 has also been employed to destroy pediculi. The power possessed by 

 the fruits, when thrown into water, of stupefying fish has long been 

 known, and is due to the picrotoxin contained in the seed. So sus- 

 ceptible are fish to the influence of picrotoxin, that they have been 

 used as a means of detecting its presence. A number of other plants, 

 however, share this property with Cocculus indicus. 



POPPY CAPSULES 



(Poppy Heads, Fructus Papaveris) 



Source, &C. The opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, Linne (N.O. 

 Papaveracece), is probably a native of Asia Minor, but is now cultivated 

 in many warm or temperate countries both as a garden plant and for 

 the sake of its fruits and seeds. The plant is an erect herbaceous 

 annual ; it varies very much in the colour of the petals, as well as in 

 the shape of the fruit and colour of the seeds. In England a variety 

 with pale flowers and whitish seeds is cultivated for medicinal use. 



The fruits are of a pale glaucous green when young, and exude when 

 wounded a bitter, white, milky juice (latex) ; as they ripen they change 

 to yellowish brown, and are then cut from the stems. In Germany 

 the unripe fruits are considered to be more active than the ripe. 



Description. Poppy heads vary very much both in shape and size. 

 Some varieties are ovoid, others are nearly globular, others again 

 depressed both at the summit and base, the latter variety attaining 

 8 cm. or more in diameter. The fruit is pale yellowish brown, often 

 marked with darker spots, glabrous, and crowned with the persistent 

 remains of twelve to fifteen stellate, sessile stigmas ; below, it is 

 contracted into a neck which is swollen just above the point of attach- 

 ment to the peduncle and marked there with the scars of the petals 

 and sepals. Cut transversely the fruit is seen to be unilocular, but 

 formed by the union of as many carpels as there are stigmas. From 

 the inner surface of the thin, brittle pericarp, yellowish, membranous 

 placentas, corresponding in number to the carpels, project into the 

 cavity of the fruit. 



The seeds, which for the most part lie loose in the fruit, are minute 

 and very numerous. Under a lens they may be seen to be reniform 

 in shape and covered with distinct, delicate reticulations. They vary 

 in colour from whitish to slate (the latter being known as maw seed), 

 and contain an oily endosperm. 



Poppy capsules have no odour ; the seeds have an oily taste, but 

 the pericarp is distinctly bitter. 



