AmAp0riir;i?ooarm'}         Lands  Where  Drugs  Grow.  i6i 
rheum ;  acres  of  the  stately,  beautiful  but  deadly  aconite ;  shocks 
of  poppies  that  look  like  small  babies'  heads  tied  in  bunches,  while 
among  the  stalks  run  trailing  vines  of  elaterium  looking  like 
squashes ;  scores  of  acres  of  belladonna ;  and,  as  far  as  the  eye  can 
reach,  the  sweet  and  beautiful  lavender,  the  whole  forming  a 
scene  which  appeals  strongly  to  the  esthetic  sense. 
The  crops  are  cultivated  and  gathered  in  a  manner  which  to  an 
American  seems  very  primitive.  Hoeing  is  usually  done  by  hand. 
The  fields  are  kept  by  the  boys  scrupulously  free  from  weeds,  stalks 
and  stones.  Stalks  and  branches  are  cut  by  sickles ;  the  reapers 
are  followed  by  the  girls  who  glean  and  who  carry  the  cut  stalks  in 
their  aprons  to  the  end  of  the  field,  there  to  be  tied  up  in  bundles 
or  packed  in  bags  and  loaded  on  carts  (to  which,  by  the  way,  the 
horses  are  hitched  tandem). 
Thus,  observing  in  the  fields  the  cutting  of  the  leafy  stalks,  the 
picking  by  the  gleaner,  the  heaps  of  leaves  wilting  in  the  carts,  and, 
following  them  to  the  drying  house,  one  comprehends  more  fully 
and  more  clearly  the  many  changes  which  follow  in  turn  from  the 
living  structure  to  the  finished  drug  ready  for  the  market. 
The  changes  viewed  in  the  mass  are  striking  and  impressive  ; 
seen  as  it  were  through  a  kaleidoscope  of  pharmacognostic  figures. 
The  progressive  transformations  most  apparent  to  our  physical 
senses  are  the  changes  in  color,  in  odor  and  taste.  Thus,  we  ob- 
serve that,  dependent  upon  the  conditions  as  to  handling,  leaves 
containing  chlorophyl  become  spotted,  darken  and  finally  turn 
brown  or  black;  while  flowers  lose  their  brightness,  their  hues 
change,  disappear  or  turn  dark.  Somewhat  equally  striking  are 
the  changes  of  aroma  occurring  in  many  plants.  Thus,  the  herba- 
ceous narcotic  drugs  living  in  the  field  have  no  distinctive  odor ; 
but  the  moment  they  are  torn  from  the  living  stem  and  during 
their  manipulation  the  odor  becomes  heavy,  disagreeable  (to  the 
novice  positively  nauseating).  Again,  the  process  of  drying  results 
in  giving  them  the  comparatively  tolerable  mousy  odor,  such  as  we 
find  in  hyoscyamus,  belladonna,  etc.  Freshly-dug  aconite  has  quite 
an  agreeable,  mild,  radish-like  odor.  On  the  other  hand,  freshly- 
dug  orris  root  has  a  strong  repulsive  smell,  not  in  the  least  resem- 
bling violets,  as  one  might  expect.  Lavender  in  the  field  is  faintly 
suggestive  of  its  name,  but  from  the  moment  it  is  cut  the  odor 
augments  until  it  fills  the  whole  atmosphere.    The  development  of 
