320 ON THE CULTIVATION OF INDIGENOUS OPIUM. 
I name them in the order of their greatest value for the quantity of 
opium they yield, and for the thickness of the sides of the capsules ; but, 
unfortunately every medal has its reverse, and we find these poppies 
placed in an inverse order when we come to examine the richness of 
the product, and the abundance of seed. The thick sides of the white 
poppy head so favourable to incisions give a very poor opium, and but 
a small quantity of seed, although the seed yields an oil of a superior 
quality. 
According to the multiplied experiments of MM. Aubergier, De- 
charmes, Benard, 0. Eeveil, Mialhe, Lepage, &c, it appears. 
That the opium of the carnation contains from 14 to 23 per cent, of 
morphia ; that of the purple poppy from 10 to 12 per cent, whilst the 
white poppy affords an amount of morphia which varies from 3*27 to 
7 and rarely reaches 8 per cent. 
For these reasons the last variety should be rejected as giving but 
little seed, and an opium the weakness of which in alkaloid seems to 
increase with the progress of ripening. 
M. Aubergier who has not only collected the opium juice of each 
variety, but the product of each day's work separately and submitted 
them to a comparative analysis, has remarked that, the opium of the 
white poppy gathered by him before the complete development of the 
capsules, the 9th of July, 1845, gave on analysis 6*63 per cent, of morphia ; 
that collected in the same plantation the 28th of the same month, the 
capsules still green having arrived at their full growth, only furnished 
5*53 per cent, of alkaloid, and lastly, the juice obtained the 13th August 
from poppy heads already arrived at the colour of dead leaves gave but 
3-27 per cent of morphia. 
He also found in the carnation poppy the same stages of decrease in 
morphia during the ripening of the fruit. 
The carnation poppy, at the gathering of the 29th to the 31st July, 
1845 would have given to the Professor 17*833 percent, of morphia; 
and the opium gathered the 21st August would have furnished about 
14*780 per cent of alkaloid. 
M. Aubergier has observed that the variations in the quantity of 
morphia in the purple poppy are confined within very narrow limits 
(1 per cent.), and that it gives pretty regularly a rich opium of 10 per 
cent strength 
Buchner, however, in his experiments has arrived at opposite results, 
for according to that experimentalist, the morphia increases with the 
progress of ripening in the capsule. 
But, have these two chemists studied the products in the same 
condition and under the same circumstances ? 
It is in fact, difficult to follow separately the capsules in their 
development, those which bud in the morning arriving sometimes at 
maturity much sooner than those of the evening before, as I have often 
proved by neighbouring plants. Moreover, it is necessary to give an 
