PAPAYER SOMNIFERUM. THE WHITE OR OPIUM POPPY. 
Class XIII. POLYANDRIA. Order I. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. PAPAVERACEiE. THE POPPY TRIBE. 
From Papaver , the Latin name of this plant, are derived the Anglo-Saxon papig , the English poppy, 
and the French pavot. It is a generally received opinion, that the common garden or White Poppy 
is a native of the East, but it has naturalized itself in fields and waste grounds in the south of Europe, 
and even in England, where it is cultivated, chiefly for the sake of the capsules. These are raised 
in great quantities at Mitcham, in Surrey, for the supply of the London market; the average price of each 
bag containing 3000 capsules, being about £4. 10. The white poppy is found growing spontaneously on 
the sandy banks of the fen ditches in some parts of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. We found it growing in 
great abundance, apparently wild, on a chalky bank, by the side of the Thames, in Ingress Park, Kent, and 
in an adjoining corn-field. It is a hardy annual, flowering in July, and varying in our gardens in the forms 
and colours of its rich, beautiful double petals; but easily changing, if neglected, to its single state, and to a 
pale purple or white hue, having a deep violet stain on each petal. The largest heads, for medical use, are 
obtained from the single-flowered kind, here figured, which is extensively cultivated in Turkey, Persia, India, 
and other warm climates, not only for the purpose of obtaining opium, but also on account of the bland oil, 
which is expressed from the seeds. 
The root is white and tapering; the whole plant glaucous and generally smooth, though sometimes the 
upper part of the stem, as in the garden specimen here figured, bears a few rigid spreading hairs. The stem 
is round, branched, erect, leafy, and rises to the height of three or four feet. The leaves are large, wavy, al- 
ternate, obtuse, lobed, and bluntly notched, embracing the stem with their heart-shaped base. The flowers 
are three inches broad, various in colour, each on a long terminal stalk. The calyx is inferior, and consists 
of two ovate, concave, obtuse, equal leaves that are deciduous, or drop on the expanding of the petals; which 
are four in number, roundish, spreading, large, somewhat undulated and white, in the wild specimens bluish- 
white, with a broad violet spot at the base of each petal. The filaments are very numerous, capillary, much 
shorter than the corolla, and furnished with erect, oblong, obtuse, compressed anthers. The germen as well 
as the capsule is nearly globular, smooth, sometimes furrowed, and crowned with a stigma, of eight, ten or 
more rays, with a broad, thin, deflexed margin. The capsule is globular, smooth, from two to four inches 
in diameter, a little compressed at the top and bottom, of one-cell, divided into several marginal cells, and 
surmounted with the persistent stigma. The seeds are very numerous, small white, or grey, kidney-shaped, 
and when ripe escape, by the valvular openings under the stem; they are oily, sweet, nutritious, and void of 
any narcotic power. 
“Two kinds of opium are found in commerce, distinguished by the names of Turkey and East India opium. The Turkey 
opium is a solid, compact, perfectly transparent substance, of moderate specific gravity, possessing a considerable degree of tena- 
city, yet somewhat brittle; if half cut through, the section dense and a little shining; of a dark brown colour, becoming softer 
by the heat of the fingers, with difficulty reduced to powder, unless in the cold, after having been long dried in small pieces. 
Powder of a light brown, and readily plastic when baked together, when moistened marking on paper a light brown interrupted 
streak, scarcely colouring the saliva when chewed, at least only tinging it of a greenish colour, and rendering it frothy, exciting 
at first a nauseous bitter taste, which soon becomes acrid with some degree of warmth, and having a peculiar disagreeable smell. 
The best kind of opium is in flat pieces ; and besides the large leaves in which they are enveloped, they are covered with reddish 
capsules of a species of rumex used in packing it. The round masses which have none of the capsules adhering to them are evi- 
dently inferior in quality. Opium is bad if it is soft or friable, mixed with any impurities, have an intensely dark or blackish 
