PAPAVERACE^E. 



121 



Linn. Sp. PI. 726 ; De Candolle, Prod. i. 119 ; Torrey & Gray, Flor. i. 60 ; 

 Woodville, 185; Stephenson & Churchill, iii. 159; Lindley, Flor. Med. 15. 



Common names. — Poppy ; Garden Poppy ; White Poppy. 



Foreig ft names. — Pavot des Jardins, Fr. ; Adormidera, Sp. ; Gartenmohu, 

 Gr. ,- Papavero, Pappardolo, It. 



Description. — The root is tapering and Fig. 71. 



white : the whole plant is generally smooth, 

 though sometimes there are a few rigid hairs 

 oi the upper part of the stem ; it is of a glau- 

 cous colour, and of an unpleasant smell. The 

 stem is round, erect, somewhat branched, 

 leafy, and from two to four feet in height. The 

 leaves are large, alternate, incised and den- 

 tate, clasping the stem at their base. The 

 flowers are large, various in colour, and sup- 

 ported on long terminal footstalks. The calyx 

 is smooth and consists of two ovate, concave, 

 obtuse sepals which fall off on the expanding 

 of the flower ; this is of four petals, which are 

 roundish, spreading, undulated, and as it were, 

 plaited, white, with a violet spot at base. The 

 stamens are very numerous, much shorter 

 than the corolla, and terminated by oblong, 

 compressed anthers. The ovary is nearly 

 globular, smooth, crowned with a flat, stellate 

 stigma. The capsule is large, smooth, one- 

 celled, but with partial dissepiments. The 

 seeds are very numerous, small, of a whitish 

 or gray colour, somewhat kidney-shaped, at 

 maturity escaping by openings under the 

 stigma ; they are oily and destitute of any 

 narcotic power. 



There are two varieties said to exist ; 

 the nigrum, with coloured flowers, dark seeds and large globular capsules, 

 with openings for discharge of the seeds under the stigma ; and the album 

 with white flowers and seeds, and ovate capsules with no seed openings. 

 These have been considered as species by some botanists ; thus the first is the 

 P. somniferum, Gmelin, and the other P. officinale ; however distinct they 

 may be in a state of nature, under cultivation these run into each other, and 

 seeds from the same capsule will furnish plants bearing flowers of different 

 colours. The black-seeded variety is the P. cceruleum of the older writers 

 on the Materia Medica. 



The Opium Poppy is a native of Persia, but has become naturalized in 

 Europe and even in the United States. In Persia, according to Chardin, it 

 attains a prodigious size, and the capsules are of great bulk ; in Europe and 

 the United States it is seldom more than from three to four feet in height, and 

 the capsules are of moderate proportions. 



It was well known to the ancients, and is spoken of by Homer as then cul- 

 tivated in gardens, and even the two varieties are noticed by Hippocrates, as 

 not possessing identical properties. It is now largely cultivated in many parts 

 of Asia, for the purpose of procuring opium from it, and in Europe to obtain 

 opium, but principally for the heads and seeds. In the United States it has 

 seldom been grown except as an ornamental flower, but there is every reason 

 to believe that it would prove a very lucrative branch of industry, not only 

 from the opium that might be obtained, but also from the oil to be procured 



P. somniferum. 

 1. Capsule of P. officinale. 2. do. of P. som- 

 niferum. 3, 4. Seeds. 



