54 



An Account of Plants, fyc. 



Onopordum Elatum. 

 This fine Thistle adorns all the hills about Constantinople, 

 and is ornamental when transplanted to a garden. 



Papaver Somniferum. 

 This seed I gathered in a Poppy field in Asia, in a district 

 famous for its Opium. The people were in the act of col- 

 lecting the opium harvest : an incision was made round the 

 capsule, from whence exuded a milky juice, which on the 

 evening following became black, and inspissated, and was 

 scraped off with a crooked knife. The Ottov, or Opium, of 

 Dioscorides,* was obtained in the same manner, from the 

 same plant, and taken exactly in the same quantity : the size 

 of a pea. 



Cicer Arietinum. 

 Lens. 



The first of these is the *2.p&v$og of DioscoRiDEs,f and 

 the Cicer of Pliny, who says, " est enim arietino capiti 

 similis, unde ita appellator." J It is called, by the modern 

 Greeks, Po/3<&; and, by the Turks, Nohud. It is used in 

 great quantities in Constantinople, and mixed with all their 

 dishes and pilafs, where it is always whole and never bruised. 

 It is also used in great abundance parched, when it is called 

 Leblevi. This operation is performed by Arabs, who have 

 a peculiar skill in detaching it from the cuticle while toasting 

 it. When prepared in this way, it is sold about the streets 

 in sieves by the Arabs, who are called Leblevige, and form 



* Lib - iv - ca P- 65. f Lib. ii. cap. 12G 



t Hist. Nat. Lib. xviii. cap. 12. 



