Rev. Mr. Tozer, in FI. Devon. — Durham; YVillington Ballast Hills: Mr. 
Winch, in Bot. Guide. — Kent; Cornfields about Hartford: Mr. S. Woods. 
Near the Medway at Rochester : Mr. Winch, in Bot. Guide. — Norfolk ; On 
the hanks of all the fen ditches, where the soil is sandy, in the parish of Hock- 
wold cum Wilton ; certainly wild ■' Rev. Mr. White, in Bot. Guide. — Stafford- 
shire ; Moat of Tutbury Castle, with flowers much smaller than the cultivated 
sort : Mr. W. Christy, in With. Bot. Arr. — Warwickshire ; Cornfields near 
the road going from Rugby to Barbv, and on Jarrett’s Heath near Rugby, rare, 
(1831), probably escaped from gardens, but the plants were much smaller than 
those usually cultivated. — SCOTLAND. Angusshire ; On newly-trenched 
ground in the neighbourhood of Delvine House, near Coupar: Miss Watson, 
in Sm. Engl. FI. — IRELAND. Sandy fields near Kilbarrick Church. Wav- 
sides opposite Lord Howth’s Deer-park, and other places about Howth ; not 
common: Mr. Mackay, in Catal. of PI. of Ireland. 
Annual. — Flowers in June and July. 
Root tapering, with several strong fibres. Stem upright, 3 or 4 
feet high, branched, leafy, smooth, and glaucous. Leaves alter- 
nate, large, wavy, irregularly lobed, cut, or deeply serrated, and 
clasping the stein by their broad heart-shaped base. Flowers large, 
drooping while in the bud, but becoming upright as the corolla ex- 
pands. Petals purplish white, with a large violet spot at the base 
of each. Germen nearly globular, rays of the stigma from 8 to 10, 
or more. Capsule nearly globular, sometimes furrowed. Seeds 
very numerous, kidney-shaped, reticulated, oily, sweet, and eatable. 
The whole plant is glaucous and smooth, except that the flower- 
stalks sometimes bear a few scattered, spreading, bristly hairs. — 
Many fine varieties with double flowers, of every shade of purple, 
scarlet, crimson, and even green, mixed with white, are not un- 
common in gardens. 
Opium is the milky juice of this species, inspissated by the beat of the sun, 
and blackened by drying. It is obtained by making incisions in the capsules 
every evening, and in the morning the sap, which has distilled from the wound, 
and become thickened, is scraped off, and being afterwards worked by the hand 
in the sunshine, is formed into cakes of about four pounds weight each. 'The 
quantity of this drug used for medical and other purposes is immense : 600,000 
pounds are said to be annually exported from the Ganges alone. — Laudanum 
is a solution of Opium in spirit of wine. A syrup, made with a decoction of 
the capsules, is kept in the shops, under the name of Diacodion. The seeds 
are sometimes used to make emulsions, but they have nothing of the narcotic 
virtues of the other parts of the plant. The Persians and Germans are said still 
to sprinkle these seeds over their rice and wheaten cakes, a practice of great 
antiquity. 'They are sometimes sent to table mixed with honey, and are also 
much used, by their German name of Maw-seed, as a cooling food for singing 
birds. It is cultivated in Flanders, and also in England, especially about 
Evesham, and Kettering, not only for the above-named purposes, but also for 
the sake of the seeds, from which an oil is extracted which is little inferior to 
olive oil, and often substituted for Florentine. The seeds consist of a simple 
farinaceous matter united with a bland oil used by Painters. — M. Robiquet 
has discovered, that the narcotic quality of the Poppy is owing to a crvstalli- 
zable substance called morphinm, which possesses some properties in common 
with ammonia. It seems to be a solid and combustible alkali : its action on 
the animal economy is violent, even in the smallest quantity. 
For a more particular account of the medical propeities of the Poppy, and the 
method of cultivating it, for the purpose of obtaining Opium, see the following 
works. — Woodville’s Medical Botany, v. iii. p. 503. (1792). — Miller's Gar- 
dener's and Botanist' s Dictionary, by Dr. Mautyn, v. ii.pt. 1. Art. Papaver, 
(1807). — Thornton’s Family Herbal, p. 534, (1810). — A Paper on the Pre- 
paration of Opium in Great Britain, by John Young, Fellow of the Royal 
College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, published in the Fldinburgii Philosophical 
Journal, vol. i. p.258, (1819). — Don's General System of Gardening and 
Botany, vol. i. p. 131, (1831). 
