ON THE CULTIVATION OF INDIGENOUS OPIUM. 331 
nourishment which would otherwise be spent in pure loss by parasitical 
plants. 
All the diggings must terminate twenty or twenty-two days after 
the first, for about this time the stem of the plant begins to rise, the 
radical leaves entirely covering the soil ; and the shade and coolness 
of these large and beautiful leaves, smother the weeds which may have 
grown after the last digging. 
The poppy, as I have already stated, has a tap root, and requires, 
consequently, deepness of earth ; the depth may be augmented by bank- 
ing up the plants at the second digging. After this, the poppy becomes 
strong, grows rapidly, and very soon attains a metre in height. 
The blossoming takes place about three months after the sowing, and 
commences by the top buds ; afterwards this continues slowly, hence 
there are found at the same time on one plant flowers scarcely come to 
light — capsules still green — and heads perfectly ripe. 
The poppy has a very short existence, altogether ephemeral ; those 
which open in the morning seldom live to see the next day's sun, and 
give place to a little capsule of a very delicate green, about six centi- 
metres in circumference. 
Seven days later, the capsule already begins to whiten underneath 
the stigmas, then at the base of the fruit, and finally, four days after, 
the surface of the head of the poppy is covered over with a powder 
of an opaque white colour. 
The capsule remains in this state during eight or nine days, during 
which the wall of the poppy head, becoming hard, gives more and more 
opposition to the pressure of the finger. 
About twenty or twenty-two days after the blooming of the flower, 
the head of the poppy softens, and the longitudinal depressions, 
beginning at the point where the stamens are inserted, turn yellow 
at their lower extremity, whilst the rest of the surface of the capsule 
offers a tint of pale green over the white bed of down, become translu- 
cent. 
Dehiscence commences towards the thirtieth day after the fall of 
the petals, and complete maturity takes place about the fortieth day. 
In this manner, from the time of sowing to the gathering of the seed, 
a period elapses of about for months and a half. 
6. Apparatus for Incising the Poppy Heads. 
In giving a description of my instrument for incising poppy heads, 
I do not pretend to assume as new, the idea that I have had of making 
an apparatus containing several parallel blades. This invention, as is 
known already, is of old date. But what I have invented — never having 
seen this sort of instrument — is the form, arrangement of the apparatus, 
and in particular, the method of rendering the blades either movable or 
fixed at will, so aa to regulate easily their force, and to enable the 
operator to make superficial incisions on the capsules. 
