PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM, Unn.' 



Plate XV.] 



English, poppy, (product opium) ; VErvKACULAE, posta, (product afhn.) 



Natural order Papaveracece, tribe Pap)averece. An annual herb with a much-branching yellow 

 root. Stems branched, 2-4 ft., erect, cylindrical, solid, smooth or with a few bristly hairs, pale 

 green, covered over, as also the leaves, with a whitish bloom which is easily rubbed off. Leaves close 

 together, alternate, sessile, shining, smooth or with a few scattered bristles underneath ; lower ones 

 about 6 in. long, oval-oblong, deeply lobed, and with the lobes coarsely dentate ; upper ones 8-10 

 in. in length, ovate-oblong, cordate, amplexicaul, less deeply lobed but with larger teeth, the teeth 

 with hard white points, dark green aljove, paler on the underside ; midrib and veins prominent. 

 Flowers large, solitary, erect, on long peduncles ; buds ovoid, drooping. Sepals 2, broad, leaflike, 

 falling off as the flower expands. Petals 4, large, fugaceous, the two outer ones much broader and 

 overlapping the other two, pure white (in the cultivated plant) or tinged with violet and with a purple 

 basal spot. Stamens numerous, inserted in several rows beneath the stalk of the ovary j filaments 

 flat, white ; anthers attached by their base, pale yellow. Ovary nearly globular, supported on a dis- 

 tinct stalk (gynophore), smooth, 1-celled, with numerous narrow placentas projecting from the walls 

 almost to the centre ; ovules very numerous, scattered all over the placentce ; stigma sessile, peltate, 

 with many oblong obtuse rays spreading over the top of the ovary. Fruit nearly globular, or 

 depressed at each end, 1-3 in. in diameter, dry and brittle, yellowish brown with black specks, de- 

 hiscing by small openings under the stigma ; placentas dry and papery, reaching about half way to 

 the centre. Seeds many, small, reniform, white or black, sharply reticulate ; embryo curved. 



Native cultivators distinguish several varieties of poppy, there being as many as 

 four grown in the Azamgarli District, differing but little in outward appearance, but con- 

 siderably in the amount and quality of the opium they produce. The varieties grown 

 in these Provinces are all of the white flowered kind, which is found better suited to the 

 climate than the red or purple flowered kind extensively grown in Malwa. Apart from 

 their colour the flowers of the red or purple poppy may be readily distinguished from 

 those of the white poppy by having the margin of their petals fringed instead of evenly 

 rounded. Occasionally red flowers may be seen in a poppy field of these Provinces, but 

 they are as a rule eliminated as soon as they appear, — some say because they are apt to 

 prejudice the crop by attracting the evil eye, and others because their produce is inferior 

 to that of the white flowers, and they should therefore be allowed no opportunity of 

 hybridizing with them. 



Except in the hills of Jaunsar to the north of Dehra, the cultivation of the poppy 

 is strictly prohibited unless on account of Government. In Jaunsar fields of poppy are 

 to be met with up to 5,000 feet, the produce of which is wholly consumed locally or in 

 the adjoining hill tracts under native rule. In the plains poppy cultivation has been 

 restricted by Government to certain well defined tracts in order to render its supervision 



* References :— Hook. Fl. lud. i. IIZ Beatley and Trimen Med. PI. 18 ; Roxb. FI. lad. ii. 571 ; W. & A. Prod. 



17 ; Voigt Hort. Suburb. Calc. 5 ; Powell Punj. Prod, 293 ; Drury Useful PI. 327. 



