OF PLANTS IN RELATION TO ANIMALS, 869 
Many years ago we noticed the latter about Battersea, but as 
we considered it to be wholly exotic we did not gather it for our 
collection of native plants. 
It has been cultivated in different parts of England, principally 
for its capsules, which are used extensively for the purposes of 
making extract and syrup of poppies, whilst the seeds yield a 
pure bland oil, considered the best for watchmakers. 
Our country cousins usually ask the druggist for poppy-heads 
with the seeds in, under the impression that this is the emollient 
and soothing part of the plant; but it is not so, as it has no nar¬ 
cotic effect wdiatever, and the oil which is expressed from the 
seeds may even be used as an article of diet with impunity. 
Dr. Pereira makes the following statement under the head of 
P. somniferum : 
“Hab. —Asia and Egypt. Grows apparently wild in some 
parts of England, but has probably escaped from gardens. 
Cultivated in Hindostan, Persia, Asia Minor, and Egypt, on 
account of the opium obtained from it. According to Dr. 
Boyle, var. j3 album is cultivated in the plains of India, and 
var. a nigrum in the Himalayas. In Europe the poppy is cul¬ 
tivated for the capsules, either as medicinal agents or for the oil, 
(poppy oil), obtained from the seeds, and which is employed in 
painting. The London market is principally supplied with 
poppy-heads from the neighbourhood of Mitcham, in Surrey.”* 
The garden form of P. somniferum makes its appearance 
annually in our garden at Bradford Abbas, where it is attractive 
from its varied coloured flowers. In it the capsules are smaller; 
but we feel quite sure that, with thinning out and other cultiva- 
tive processes, both the heads of flowers and capsules would 
become larger, and the former of a lighter colour, when they 
would be the true P. somniferum , or opium poppy. 
The latter we have grown in Gloucestershire for medicinal 
purposes and for experiment, which latter consisted in the growth 
of opium. To this end, when the plants had been duly thinned, 
we waited for their flowering. Eirst, then, the calyx would fall 
off, and next the petals, when the capsules rapidly advanced in 
size, and when these latter were between one and two inches in 
diameter we made gashes across or down them with a sharp pen¬ 
knife, choosing, if possible, a bright sunshiny day for the opera¬ 
tion. In about twenty-four hours afterwards the exuded white 
milk, which would become brown and solid, is scraped from the 
capsule, and forms the extract known as opium. It is collected 
in the East in much the same manner, but we are informed that 
the operator is constantly kneading it in his hand, and spitting 
upon it to make it work en masse , and hence the superior viscidity 
# ‘ Materia Medica,’ vol. ii, part ii, p. 2074. 
