opium. 323 



Opium. — The juice which flows from incisions made in 

 the unripe capsules of the Opium Poppy, Papaver somni- 

 ferum (Nat. Ord. Papaveracea), collected, dried, and formed 

 into a mass. 



The opium of commerce consists principally of two kinds, 

 East Indian and Turkish ; the latter is esteemed most 

 highly. In India the Poppy is largely cultivated for the 

 production of opium. Dr. Joseph Hooker describes the 

 poppy-fields as resembling green lakes studded with white 

 water-lilies. His description of the opium culture in India 

 is the best account we have of the process ; he says — 



"The East India Company grants licenses for the culti- 

 vation of the poppy, and contracts for all the produce at 

 certain rates, varying according to its quality. 



"The poppy flowers in the end of January and the 

 beginning of February, and the capsules are sliced in 

 February and March with a little instrument like a saw, 

 made of three serrated plates tied together ; from the in- 

 cisions made by this instrument the opium oozes out as a 

 milky juice, which as it dries becomes a soft brown sticky 

 paste ; each morning this paste is scraped off by means of 

 small shells, and collected into jars, the contents of which 

 are afterwards made into balls of about half a pound weight ; 



