22 
THE LADIES’ FLOWER GARDEN 
The poppy heads, or dried capsules, after they have discharged their seeds, are also kept for sale. They 
are used for fomentations and poultices to allay violent pain. A sti’ong decoction of them mixed with sugar 
boiled down to a syrup, forms the medicine called syrup of poppies, which was formerly much given to children 
to soothe them during the pains of teething. It is, however, a very dangerous preparation, as some of the cap¬ 
sules contain more opium than others, from their different degrees of dryness, the soil they are grown in, and a 
variety of other sources not perceivable by the outward appearance of the heads. Thus one half-a-dozen of heads 
may contain two or three grains more opium than another half-dozen, and consequently the syrup prepared from 
the first will be much stronger than the second. There is but too much reason to fear that many children who are 
supposed to have died in teething, may have fallen a sacrifice to an injudicious use of this medicine. The best 
poppy heads are obtained from abroad, and they are very much larger than those grown in this country. Poppies 
are, however, cultivated for their heads at Mitcham, in Surrey. They are sent to market in bags, each containing 
about 3000. The white-seeded variety is considered in France to be the best to grow for poppy heads. This 
kind is called by the French farmers the blind poppy, because it has only two or three apertures for the discharge 
of its seeds, and those are so small as to be scarcely visible. It is also fancied by some to be the best for opium ; 
but both kinds produce that drug, and both are cultivated by the regular opium growers. The poppy heads 
sold by the druggists as from the Levant, are almost all those of the blind poppy grown in the south of France. 
Culture. —The poppy requires a very rich and yet light soil to grow it to perfection. When it is wished to 
have the flowers very fine, a bed should be prepared by trenching it one foot or two feet deep. A layer of 
cow-dung should be spread along the bottom of the trench, and it should be filled in with the soil taken out, mixed 
with vegetable mould composed of rotten leaves. The seeds may be sown either in autumn or early in spring, 
according to the time they are wanted to flower. All the black-seeded varieties are quite hardy; and as they 
will stand the winter uninjured, they will produce the finest and best flowers if sown in autumn. The seeds of 
the poppy, like all oily seeds, will not keep well; and though some have been known to vegetate after having 
been kept in paper three years, yet those of the current year are much to be preferred. When the ground has 
been properly prepared by digging and manuring, and the surface rendered quite level, the places may be marked 
for the seeds to be sown. If the plants are to be in patches, circles may be marked by pressing the ground lightly 
with the bottom of the saucer of a flower-pot of the required size, as directed for sowing the seeds of Flos Adonis ; 
but if they are to be in lines, the lines may be marked with a smooth rod laid along the bed, or with a piece of 
rope. The seeds should then be strewed on the smooth part thus formed, much thicker than was directed for any 
of the other flowers ; as, if the seed is more than a year old, it is probable that not more than one in twenty, or 
even one in fifty, will come up. As the poppy seed, however, is very fine, it may easily be sown too thick; but 
this should be guarded against by taking care that the seeds are spread evenly along the line, or over the circle. 
When the young plants come up, they must be thinned out ; and when they are about six or eight inches high, 
they may be thinned again, so as to leave only the strongest plants ; and these should, in rich soils, be a foot or 
eighteen inches apart; or if the flowers be wished to be very fine, two feet apart, as a strong root will throw up 
many flower-stems, and abundance of leaves. In poorer soils, the distance between the plants may be less. The 
plants pulled up in thinning out must be thrown away, as the opium poppy is one of those annuals which will 
not bear transplanting. As the plants increase in size, the ground should be occasionally loosened about them, 
and drawn up to the stems with a small hoe. They should also be watered in dry weather. It may appear 
