110 



The Flora of Wiltshire. 



carp into the cells when it has become inspissated, and of a brown- 

 ish colour from evaporation, and the action of light. It is then 

 further evaporated by the heat of the sun, forming the ductile mass 

 called opium, (Opos) sap. It is for the production of opium that 

 the Poppy is cultivated in Turkey, Asia Minor, Egypt, Persia, and 

 India, occasionally in Europe, and even in this country. Both the 

 varieties are cultivated for the production of opium, though it ap- 

 pears that the var. b. album with white flowers, ("P. officinale" 

 Gmelin) is alone used for this purpose in Persia, and the plains of 

 India; and the var. a. nigrum, dark flowered, ("P. somniferum" 

 Gmelin) in the Himalayas. Opium from the Poppy cultivated in 

 this country yields, according to Brando's analysis, as much mor- 

 phia as the best from Turkey, but the uncertain state of the wea- 

 ther will prevent the preparation from becoming in Britain a source 

 of profitable enterprise. The seeds of the Poppy are used for the 

 expression of a bland oil, which they yield abundantly, and which 

 possesses none of the narcotic properties of the plant. It has been 

 procured sufficiently pure for use in salads, but its principal use is 

 in the arts. The origin of the medicinal use of the Poppy is in- 

 volved in utter obscurity, although from the derivation of the word 

 opium, and indeed from the many allusions to the soporific property 

 of the Poppy in the Grecian Mythology, as well as the direct testi- 

 mony of several of the early Greek writers, it appears that the Greeks 

 were acquainted with its powers at a very early age. Hippocrates 

 is said to have recommended Opos mekonos, the juice of the Poppy. 

 Diagoras, about 416 years B.C., gave directions respecting the pro- 

 per time for collecting the juice which forms the opium. The mode 

 which Pliny describes the Romans to have adopted to procure the 

 opium, does not materially differ from that practised at the present 

 day in this country, and in the East, (Phillips.) A solution of 

 opium in a spirituous menstruum forms the laudanum of the shops. 

 This name which was originally given to the solid opium itself, 

 was expressive of thankfulness for its wonderful properties, Laus, 

 praise, Deo to God. Formerly much of the opium was produced 

 in the territory of Thebes in Egypt, whence the terms Thebaic extract 

 and tincture, by which it and laudanum were known. It was with 



