mi 



-MEDICINAL AND POISONOUS PLANTS 



Out of the large number of drugs consisting of or containing 

 poisonous alkaloids the few following may l:)e taken as familiar 

 examples: opium, tobacco, coca, atropine, quinine, strychnine, 

 and aconite. 



Opium is the dried milky juice which flows from wounds 

 made in the seed-pods of the opium pojjpy (Fig. 172). It 



Fig. 17l', I. — Opium P'|||||.^" iPapurrr Kuiniiifiriini, l'ii\>]iy Fainilx-, Pnparcr- 

 ncea'). Flowering and fruiting to]). (Baillon.) — .\n annual about 

 1 m. tall; leaves pale Kreen; flowcr.s white, red. or puriilish: frnit dry, 

 smooth. Native home, Mediterran(>an region. 



has been foimd lo I'ontain twenty different alkaloids. Of 

 these morphine (( 'lyHi^iNO;,) is the most important. The 

 chief uses of opium in medicine are to rela.v spasm, relieve 

 pain, and induce sleep. Among various oriental peoples large 

 quantities are cdnsuincd by smoking and in other ways as an 



