216 SELECT PLANTS FOR INDUSTRIAL CULTURE 



a still more important use of the plant is that for the preparation 

 of opium. Both the black and pale seeded varieties can be 

 used for the production of opium. The return of poppy eul- 

 ture, whether for opium or for oil, is within a few months. 

 Milder and somewhat humid open forest tracts proved most 

 productive for obtaining opium from this plant ; but it can 

 be reared also in colder localities, good opium, rich in morphia, 

 having even been obtained in Middle Europe and the Northern 

 United States, the summers there being sufficiently long to 

 ripen the poppy with a well-elaborated sap. The morphia 

 contents in opium from Gippsland were at an average some- 

 what over 10 per cent. Opium was prepared in the Mel- 

 bourne Botanic Gardens for the Exhibition of 1866; but 

 particularly Mr. J. Bosisto and Mr. J. Hood have given to 

 this branch of rural industry there commercial dimensions. 

 The Smyrna variety is particularly desirable for opium; it 

 enables the cultivator to get from 40 lbs. to 75 lbs. of opium 

 from an acre, generally worth 30s. to 35s. per pound. The 

 ground for poppy culture must be naturally rich, or otherwise 

 be well manured ; dressing with ashes increases the fecundity 

 of the plant. The seed, about 9 lbs. to an acre, is generally 

 sown broadcast, mixed with sand. In the most favourable 

 places as many as three crops are obtained during a season. 

 The collecting of the opium, which consists merely of the 

 indurating sap of the seed-vessels, is commenced a few days 

 after the lapse of the petals. Superficial horizontal or diagonal 

 incisions are made into the capsules as they successively ad- 

 vance to maturity. This operation is best performed in the 

 afternoons and evenings, and requires no laborious toil. The 

 milky opium sap thus directed outwards, is scraped off next 

 morning into a shallow cup, and allowed to dry on a place 

 away from sunlight ; it may also be placed on poppy leaves. 

 From one to six successive incisions are made to exhaust 

 the sap, according to season, particular locality, or the knife- 

 like instrument employed. In the Department of Somme 

 (France) alone opium to the value of £70,000 annually is 

 produced, and poppy seed to the value of £170,000. Aus- 

 tralian seasons, as a rule, are favourable for collecting opium, 

 and thus this culture is here rendered less precarious than in 

 many other countries. Our opium has proved as good as the 

 best Smyrna kinds. The petals are dried for packing the 

 opium. The main value of opium depends on its contents of 

 morphia, for which the genus Papaver, as far as hitherto 

 known, remains the sole source. But not less than fourteen alka- 

 loids have been revealed in opium by the progressive strides of 

 organic chemistry : Codein, metamorphin, morphia or morphia. 



