P A P A V E R. 
354 
and thus dried until they are fit for fale. It is then 
packed i n chefts, with fragments of the capfules from which 
poppy-feeds have been thrafhed-out. This preparation, 
though fimple, requires expert workmen able to deteft 
the many adulterations which are praftifed on the raw 
juice. The adulteration of prepared opium is yet more 
difficult to difcover. It lias been fuppofed to be com¬ 
monly vitiated with an extraft from the leaves and ftalk 
of the poppy, and with gum of the mimofa; other fo¬ 
reign admixtures have been conjeftured, fuch as cow- 
dung, gums and refins of various forts, and parched rice. 
Amid the extenfive concerns of the Britilh Eaft-India 
Company, it is well known that the growth and manu¬ 
facture of opium has for many years been confidered as a 
great fource of public revenue and of private wealth: 
whole didrifts have for thefe purpofes been devoted to 
the culture of the poppy ; the fuperintendance and col¬ 
lection of the taxes have been the employment of officers 
of high rank in the company’s fervice ; and the privilege 
of the commodity for a feafon one of the mod lucrative 
gifts which the governors of the eaft could beftow on 
their neareft connexions. China was the grand mart for 
this article^ and fo ftrong was the attachment of the 
Chinefe to its ufe, that any quantity fent to Canton was 
fure to be purchafed at a high price. It appears, how¬ 
ever, that this valuable traffic will now be loft to the com¬ 
pany, the Chinefe government having difcovered that 
great evils refult from the abufe of opium, the particulars 
of which have been detailed in inftruftions from the 
fooyuen to the hoppo at Canton, who has, in confequence, 
iflued an edift, which, after recapitulating the fooyuen’s 
inftruftions, wholly prohibits the importation of opium 
into the Chinefe dominions ; and the prohibition has 
been renewed during the prefent year, 1820. 
The opium-trade, fuch as it is, it is well known has 
been monopolifed by the company. It is provided in the 
provinces of Bahar and Benares; and fold in Calcutta by 
public fale. A learned and very ingenious inquirer ef- 
timated the produce of one acre at fixty pounds of opium ; 
but we think he mull have been miffed by the refult of 
trials on very fertile land in a fortunate feafon. Such in¬ 
formation as we have been able to obtain, has led us to 
eftimate little more than four fers, or eight pounds. 
Many cultivators obtain from the fame land a crop of 
pot-herbs, or fome other early produce, before the feafon 
of lowing the poppy; but it is reckoned a bad praftice. 
In eftimating the medium produce, we may advert to the 
accidents of feafon, to which this delicate plant is par¬ 
ticularly liable from infefts, wind, hail, or unfeafonable 
rain. The produce feldom fquares with the true average, 
but commonly runs in extremes : while one cultivator is 
difappointed, another reaps immenfe gain: one feafon 
does not pay the labour of the culture; another, peculiarly 
fortunate, enriches all the cultivators. Remarks on the 
Husbandry of Bengal; printed at Calcutta, 1804. 
The poppy is cultivated in the Netherlands, and in the 
northern departments of France, on a large fcale, not 
with a view to any foporific or narcotic qualities which 
the plant may contain, but on account of the fweet and 
pieafant oil which abounds in the feed. The poppy was 
firft introduced into France from Germany about the 
year 1808, in confequence of the injuries, amounting 
a] mo ft to a general deltruflion, received by the olive-trees 
in the fouthern provinces from the feverity of the pre¬ 
ceding winter. The firft planters having been amply re- 
compenfed for their expenfes and labour by the price at 
which the poppy-oil was fold, others were induced to 
follow their example; infomuch that, next to wheat, the 
poppy in certain extenfive diftrifts is the moft general 
article of agricultural purfuit. The flavour of this oil is 
fo fweet and delicate, that it is frequently fubftituted for 
that of the olive; and we have been credibly informed 
that the nature, qualities, tafte, and flavour, of thefe two 
oils are fo fimilar, and fo much refemble each other, that 
this fubftitution isfcarcely confidered to be fraud in com¬ 
merce. It is extrafted by iron cylinders, which crufh the 
feed, and which are put into aftion by fmall windmills, 
of which, in the immediate vicinity of Lille only, there 
are more than two hundred. The pulp, or refiduum, is 
made into oil-cake for the fattening of cattle, which is 
for that purpofe of a very fuperior qualify ; and the 
haulme, which is more fubftantial than ftraw, is ufed by 
the bakers for heating their ovens. The capfule is fome- 
times fold to the chemifts ; and from them a decottion is 
made fimilar to what is too frequently manufaftured 
by the cottagers of this country under the name of 
Jleeping-water. 
That it is fo cultivated we have the teftimony of Mifs 
Hatfield, who, in her “Terra Incognita of Lincolnftiire, 
1815,” has this pafl'age : “Through the whole of this 
excurfion I was particularly attrafted by the almoft ge¬ 
neral cultivation of the white poppy, with which every 
cottage-garden is adorned. Anxious to know the mo¬ 
tive for an appearance fo remarkable, on inquiring I was 
not a little furprifed to find that this ftately flower was 
raifed for the purpofe of diftillation; that the villagers 
had frequent recourfe to its lethean juices, as an inducer 
to ftupefaftion, the word fpecies of intoxication. That 
the fuffering patient, fleeplefs and agonized with pain, 
fhould fly to the ufe of opiates; that the Turk, to whom 
wine is religioufly prohibited, fhould feek a temporary 
gratification in the delirium they produce; does not fur- 
prife us; but that the fimple healthy peafantry of Lin- 
colnftiire, who fuft'er no prohibitions, who live in greater 
plenty than thofe of any other county in the kingdom, 
fhould feek this deleterious enjoyment, greatly fur¬ 
prifed me.” 
8. Papaver pilofum, or hairy red poppy : capfules 
fmooth ; ftem many-flowered, clothed with fpreading 
hairs; leaves clafping the ftem, cut, hairy all over. Ga¬ 
thered by Dr. J. Sibthorp, about the Bithynian Olympus. 
The root of this new and handfome fpecies appears to be 
perennial. Herb about the fize of the laft, but of a bright- 
green, not glaucous, and clothed with briftly hoary hairs, 
which fpread horizontally on the ftem, where they are 
very abundant, as well as on the flower-ftalks, where they 
are fparingly fcattered. The leaves are fimple, broad, 
heart-fhaped, with ftrong ribs and veins ; the radical ones 
narrower, oblong, and ftalked. Flowers about the fize 
of the laft, drooping in the bud, then ereft ; petals of a 
pale tawny fcarlet, or full orange, with white claws; an¬ 
thers yellow. This is a new fpecies, deferibed by Dr. 
Smith in his Prodr. Graze. Sibth. vol. i. p. 360. 
9. Papaver orientale, or great oriental puppy: capfules 
fmooth ; ftem fingle-flowered, leafy, rough, with clofe- 
preffed briftles ; leaves pinnate, ferrated, briftly. Native 
of the Levant. Tournefort found it near Erzerum, in 
Armenia, flowering in June. He introduced it into the 
gardens of Holland and France; and it has been, for 
about a century, a hardy perennial in our parterres, 
flowering early in fuinmer, and very confpicuous for the 
great fize, and peculiarly-brilliant fcarlet colour, of its 
flowers, which are too dazzling to be looked on in the 
funfhine: they are nearly a fpan wide, with dark ftamens, 
and fometimes a black fpot on each petal; germen globofe, 
quite fmooth and even, without ribs ; rays of the ftigma 
fixteen, peculiarly dilated. The root creeps moderately, 
by which the plant is increafed, for it fcarcely ever ripens 
feed with us. Stems about two feet high, fimple, leafy, 
round, denfely clothed with ereft, rigid, pungent, clofe- 
prefl'ed briftles. Leaves moft numerous from the root, 
a foot long, dark-green, harfli and briftly, pinnate, with 
ferrated decurrent fegments. The juice of the plant is 
hot and acrid, yet Tournefort fays the Turks and Arme¬ 
nians eat the unripe heads by way of luxury. They ex- 
traft no opium from this fpecies ; but perhaps thefimilarity 
of its flavour and effefts, to that great foother of their 
cares, may caufe it to be thus employed. The flower of 
this fpecies is one of thofe that emit eleftrical fparks, 
or flalhes of light. See the article Light, vol. xii. p. 680. 
This 
