The Poppy. 73 



" Within the infant rind of this small flower, 

 Poison hath residence and medicine power, 

 Oh mickle is the powerful grace that lies 

 In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities. 

 For naught so vile that on the earth doth live, 

 But to the earth some special good doth give, 

 For naught so good that strained from that fair use 

 Revolts from true birth stumbling on abuse." 



This is an annual plant, with a smooth, erect, whitish, and 

 nearly round stem, varying in height from two to six feet, ac- 

 cording to circumstances and favorable situation ; it is sometimes 

 branching. The leaves are quite large, gashed, and closely em- 

 brace the stem, upon which they are alternately disposed ; they 

 are glaucous or clothed with a sea-green mealiness, which is 

 easily rubbed off. The flowers are very large, of a silver-grey 

 color, tinged with violet at the base, and come out in June ; the 

 flower-cup, which is composed of two leaves, falls when the blos- 

 soms expand. The petals are four in number, subject, however, 

 to the multiplication which is always the effect of cultivation. 

 The capsule is very similar to the species we have already de- 

 scribed ; it is in it that its virtues chiefly reside ; although every 

 part of the plant abounds in the opaque milky juice, all of this 

 does not contain morphine. Like some other plants we have 

 mentioned, the Poppy does not seem poisonous until a certain 

 age,- for in Persia, when they thin the plants, the young ones are 

 used as pot-herbs ; and we have the authority of Hippocrates for 

 believing them nutritive. Linnaeus considered the Poppy a na- 

 tive of Europe ; at any rate, it grows wild in almost every part of 

 it but England ; cultivated there to a great extent, not only for 

 its Opium, but the bland oil its seeds contain, which is used in 

 painting, making soap, and adulterating Olive oil. Its principal 

 cultivation is confined to the East, Turkey, Egypt, the East 

 Indies and other parts of Asia, where Poppy fields can only be 

 compared to our corn fields. The account of its culture by Kerr 

 is the same as that of Discorides, given eighteen hundred years 

 ago. The field being well prepared by the plough and harrow, 

 and reduced to an exact level superficies, it is then divided into 

 quadrangular areas of seven feet long and five feet in breadth, 

 leaving two feet of interval, which is raised five or six inches, 

 ( and excavated into an aqueduct for conveying water to every 



