POLYANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. Papaveii. 649 
Bot. (Moat of Tutbury Castle, Staffordshire, with flowers much smaller 
than the cultivated sort. Mr. W. Christy. E.) A. June—July.* 
* Opium is the milky juice of this plant, inspissated by the heat of the sun. The 
Edinburgh College directs an extract to be prepared from the heads, i. e. the eapsules. 
This extract is supposed to be milder in its effects than the foreign Opium, agreeing with 
many constitutions by which that cannot be borne, but it requires doulpje the quantity for 
a dose: (nevertheless, it is asserted that those who walk through fields of Poppies, or in any 
manner prepare those flowers for making Opium, are very sensibly affected with the 
drowsiness they occasion. A syrup, made with a decoction of the heads, is kept in 
the shops, under the name of Diacodion. The seeds are sometimes used to make emul¬ 
sions, but they have nothing of the narcotic virtues of the other parts of the plant. The 
Persians and Germans are said still to sprinkle these seeds over their rice and wheaten 
cakes, a practice of great antiquity. They are also sometimes sent to table mixed with 
honey. Gerard reports that “the seedes are often used in comfits, or served at the table 
with other junketting dishes: the oile which is pressed out is pleasant and delightfull to be 
eaten.” M. Robiquet, has discovered that the narcotic quality of the Poppy is owing to a 
crystalb'zable substance called morphium, w'hich possesses some properties in common with 
ammonia. It seems to be a solid and combustible alkali: its action on the animal economy is 
violent, even in the smallest quantity. This plant is cultivated in Flanders, also in 
England, largely about Evesham, and Kettering, for the above named purposes ; and for 
the sake of the seeds, from which an oil is extracted little inferior to olive oil, and often sub¬ 
stituted for Florentine. The seeds consist of a simple farinaceous matter united with a 
bland oil used by painters. They have been given in the form of emulsion in catarrhs. 
But a principal purpose for which Maw-seeds are raised in large quantities is as food for 
birds, and heuce the vulgar name. 
As observed in the “ Wonders of the Vegetable Kingdom,” when the petals of the Poppy 
fall off, the seed-vessel which rises in the centre, is completely closed. In process of time, 
as the seeds begin to ripen, the cover is gradually elevated, till as length it exhibits a 
beautiful little dome, supported by a circular range of pillars, which form so many openings 
for the escape of the imprisoned seeds, which not unfrequently amount to many thousands in 
a single capsule. Another singularity is thus noticed by Paley. “ The head while growing 
hangs down, a rigid curvature in the upper part of the stem giving it that position, and in 
that position it is impenetrable to rain or moisture. When the head has acquired its size, 
and isreadyto open, the stalk erects itself, for the purpose, as it should seem, of presenting 
the flower, and the instruments of fructification, to the genial influence of the sun’s rays, a 
curious instance of the attention of nature to the safety and maturation of the parts upon 
which the seed depends.” The silken tissue of the petals proves a talisman for Cupid, 
for, according to the practice of youthful lovers,— 
“ By a prophetic Poppy-leaf I found 
Your chang’d affection ; for it gave no sound, 
Though in my hand struck hollow as it lay, 
But quickly wither’d like your love away.” 
Many fine varieties of these flowers are produced by garden culture. The Society 
of Arts rewarded Mr. Ball, of Williton, Somerset, for preparing Opium from Pop¬ 
pies of British growth. The most productive flowers are large, rather dark, but varying 
in colour, and somewhat double. The seeds should be sown in February, and again 
in March, in soil well manured and worked fine, either in drills or broad-cast, to 
be thinned when a few inches high, and kept free from weeds. When the leaves 
fade, longtitudinal incisions must be made in the green pods; the glutinous fluid 
will adhere to the plant, and in a day or two be inspissated by the sun, and ready for 
scraping off with a knife. It may shortly after be potted. This production has been 
declared by competent judges to be equally powerful with, and vastly more pure than, the 
best foreign Opium. The profit from an acre of suitable land, with a southern aspect, and 
where labour is cheap, must be very considerable. The above account is corroborated by 
the experiments of Dr. Fox, at Brislington, near Bristol, excepting as to the pro¬ 
portionate strength of the article. Messrs. Cowley and Staines, of Winslow, Bucks, 
in 1824, received a reward of thirty guineas for cultivating twelve acres of Poppies, and 
