THE WHITE POPPY. 
181 
But as a rather more minute detail of the process than 
poetry allows may not be unacceptable, the following 
additional remarks are subjoined : — 
The great demand for opium occasions the white 
poppy to be largely and carefully cultivated throughout 
the Bast, especially in Asia Minor, whence the best 
quality is imported. The manner of procuring it is 
singular. “ When the heads are nearly ripe, they are 
wounded on one side with a sharp instrument, and a white 
liquor exudes, which the heat of the sun hardens upon 
them. This is opium. It is collected next dav, when 
fresh wounds are made on the opposite side of the seed- 
vessel, the juice issuing from which is similarly collected.” 
In putting this and the two following pieces at the 
close of my work, I have departed from its general 
arrangement — that of placing each flower according to 
the time of blowing; as, from the solemn events to 
which they refer, they appear better adapted than any 
other for the concluding stanzas; and here I may 
remark, that throughout these pages it has been my aim, 
wherever the subject would admit of it, to associate not 
merely a moral, but a religious, truth with each selected 
blossom. Gladly have I availed myself of whatever 
else might usefully or elegantly illustrate the subject; 
