168 
LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
The largest heads of the single white Poppy are 
preferred for making opium. These, being wounded 
before they are mature, and while growing, yield a 
milky juice ; this, being collected and dried, becomes 
opium, of which laudanum is made. According to 
the quantity taken, laudanum operates either as a 
powerful remedy or a destructive poison. 
From a Poppy I have taken 
Alortal’s balm, and mortal’s bane ; 
Juice that, creeping through the heart. 
Deadens every sense of smart; 
Doomed to heal or doomed to kill. 
Fraught with good or fraught with ill. 
Mrs. Robinson. 
The Poppy has of late years been extensively cul¬ 
tivated in this country for the making of opium, 
which is found to be equal in all its qualities to that 
formerly imported from Turkey. The quantity an¬ 
nually consumed in England is about fifty thousand 
pounds. In Germany an oil is extracted from the 
seed of the Poppy, that is not inferior to the finest 
Italian oils for culinary purposes, if used within the 
year. 
Many species of Poppies are cultivated in the gar¬ 
den. The double ones are flowers of surpassing 
