60 JOURNAL OF THE BOYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



on in this country on an agricultural instead of horticultural scale 

 at Ampthill in Bedfordshire, Long Melford in Suffolk, Hitchin in 

 Hertfordshire, Market Deeping in Lincolnshire, Mitcham, Carshalton, 

 and Sutton in Surrey, St. Neots in Huntingdonshire, and near Canter- 

 bury in Kent. In some counties there are special plants cultivated, such 

 as liquorice near Pontefract in Yorkshire, valerian near Chesterfield in 

 Derbyshire, and chamomile near Eingwoocl in Hampshire. It is by no 

 means easy to ascertain the amount of drugs thus grown, but a special 

 inquiry made about the middle of the last century by the late Mr. Peter 

 Squire of Oxford Street will give some idea of the amount then grown, 

 which necessarily must be much larger at the present time, owing to the 



Fig. 15. — Fihld Culture of Herbs at Sutton. 



great increase in the population of this country, the requirements of our 

 Colonies, and the Continental and American demand. 



The average quantities of medicinal herbs supplied to the principal 

 dealers in the London market from Mitcham and other places near 

 London during the years 1843-1845 were : 



Aconite plant . . . . .21 cwt. 



Angelica root 12 cwt. 



Belladonna plant 6 tons. 



Chamomile flowers 4 tons 16 cwt. 



Henbane plant 20 tons. 



Liquorice root 15 tons. 



Poppy capsules (whole) .... 950,000. 



Poppy capsules (broken) .... 4 tons. 



