14.2 
The BRITISH HERBAL. 
DIVISION I. 
x. Red Poppy. 
Papaver rbaas. 
The root is long, white, and flender, and has 
very few fibres. é 
The firt leaves, which rife immediately from: 
it are large, long, of a pale green, deeply jagged, 
and without footftalks. 
In the centre of thefe rifes the ftalk, which is 
round, weak, of a pale green, and hairy; it is 
two feet high, tolerably erect, and divided into 
feveral branches. 
The leaves on it are placed irregularly, and re- 
femble thofe from the root, but that they are more 
deeply jagged, and divided at the edges: thefe 
alfo are of a pale green, and hairy, and they and 
the whole of the plant abound with a yellow bit- 
ter juice. 
The flowers are very large, and of a bright 
fearlet, with numerous threads in the centre; on 
‘which ftand black buttons. 
The feed-veffel is {mall, oblong, and crowned 
with a flat head: the feeds are very numerous. 
It is common in our corn-fields, and flowers 
in July. > 
C. Bauhine calls it Papaver erraticum majus. 
Others, Papaver erraticum, Papaver rubrum, and 
Papaver rheas. 
The flower is fometimes white, and fometimes 
variegated. We fee this a little in nature, and 
much more fo in gardens, where culture renders 
it very beautiful. ‘ 
The reader is not to underftand by this, that 
all the beautiful garden poppies are produced from 
this fpecies ; for many of them, indeed the greater 
part, are from the other, next to be defcribed: 
the fmaller, in general, are from this, and they 
are very beautiful, and very numerous. 
2. Wild white Poppy. 
Papaver album fylveftre. 
The root is long, fimple, and white, and has 
few fibres. 
The ftalk is round, upright, firm, and a yard 
high: the leaves ftand irregularly on it, and are 
very large, and of a bluifh green. 
They have no footftalks, but enclofe the ftalk 
at the bafe, and from thence grow fmaller to the 
point : they are notched at the edges, and 
fmooth. 
The flowers ftand at the tops of the branches, 
into which the ftalk divides at the upper part; 
they are very large, but of no great beauty : 
their colour is white, with a faint bluth of a 
deadifh purple; and they have large black fpots, 
one at the bottom of each petal. 
The feed-veffel is round and large, of a bluifh 
green, and full of irregular, rough, white feeds. 
' The whole plant is perfectly fmooth, and 
throughout of the fame bluith green colour. 
It is common wild in Ireland. We fee itin un- 
cultivated places fometimes in England; but it 
feems to have arifen from feeds fcattered from 
fome garden. In Ireland it is faid to be found 
far from any houfe. 
' 
BRITISH 
SEP. EB CSI Bys. 
g. Black Poppy. 
Papaver nigrum. 
The root is long, flender, and divided : it has 
few fibres, and is of a whitifh colour. 
The firft leaves are fmall, and inconfiderable $ 
they are long, narrow, divided- deeply’ at the’ 
edges, and have no footftalks. 
Among thefe rifes the ftalk, which is round, 
thick, upright, and a foot and a half high. 
The leaves ftand alternately,: and differ greatly 
from thofe which rife firft from the root: they 
are large, and have no footftalks: their co- 
lour is a blackifh green, and they are deeply 
jagged. 
The flower is large and there ufually, in the 
wild ftate of the plant, ftands only one on the top 
of the ftalk : it is of a deep colour, between blue 
and black, and has a tuft of threads in the centre, 
The feed-veflel is round, and moderately 
large, and the feeds are numerous, fmall, and 
black. 
It is found wild in the northern parts of ire- 
land, far from any place where the feeds could 
| be fuppofed to be fcattered. It fowers in Aus 
gut, 
C. Bauhine calls it Papaver bortenf/e Semine ni» 
gro. 
Linneeus confiders this only as a variety of the 
other preceding: but, however they may re- 
femble one another when brought into gardens, 
from the effect of culture, or the mixture per- 
haps of their farina, they are, when in their 
wild and natural ftate, perfectly diftin@. 
Both thefe are brought into gardens for ufe 
and beauty, and the varieties raifed from them 
by culture are innumerable. i 
The black is not much regarded as a medi- 
cine; but the white poppy, we have defcribed 
here in its wild ftate, is the famous plant, which 
being properly affifted by culture, affords in 
this country the poppy-beads, of which 
rup of diacodium is made; andin Tur 
other parts of the Eaft, yields opium. 
The plant continues the fame in all refpects 
but fize when it is thus cultivated ; and the 
greateft variation in this refpeé&t is in the head 
which in the wild ftate are not larger than a chef- 
nut, but by culture is equal to a large apple. 
The virtues of all thefe, and thofe of the fe- 
veral fucceeding kinds of Poppies, are the fame; 
but they enjoy them in a different degree. é 
_ They are all fopofifick, and of wonderful vir- 
tue againft pain. 
The black poppy is fappofed to have fomething 
poifonous, but altogether without reafon, We 
have fhewn that it differs little from the white in 
form, and it is lefs different in its virtue: how- 
ever, the white is in repute, and is moft indeed 
almoft only ufed. : 
The flowers of the red Poppy are gently fopori- 
fick, and are peculiarly good in pleurifies: they 
ee ald by many as a fpecifick in that 
order: they are alfo good in qui i 
all diforders of the brea alas My 
our fy- 
key, and 
Our 
