This, when it is when in a favourable situation.1 The leaves are large, simple, obtuse, lobed, and crenated, and embracing the stem on which they are alternately placed. The flowers are large and terminal; the calyx is formed of two smooth, ovate, bifid, concave leaves, that drop on the expanding of the petals; which are four in number, large, roundish, entire, somewhat undulated, and white; occasionally of a silver-grey colour, and tinged with violet at the base. The filaments are very numerous, slender, shorter than the corolla, and support erect, compressed anthers; and the germen, which is globular and smooth, is crowned with a many-rayed stigma. The capsule, which stands on a short pedicel, is globular when well grown, smooth, glaucous, from two to four inches in diameter, a little flattened at the top and bottom, and crowned with the persistent stigma, the segments of which stand erect, and have an elegant appearance. The seeds are small, white, or grey, reniform, and very numerous; and escape, when ripe, through small openings under the points of the stigma.

All the parts of the poppy, except the seeds2, contain a white, opaque, narcotic juice; but it abounds more in the charged with juice, is scraped on the side of a tin flask, fastened to the breast of the gatherer.

Mr. Young supposes, that by sowing the poppies between early potatoes, the following may be the probable return-at least such was the result of his experiments for one acre:

But I will suppose this to be over-rated one half. See Edin. Philosoph. Journ. vol. i. p. 258-270. See also a valuable paper on this subject in the Quarterly Journ.- of Science, vol. iv. p. 69. My friend Mr. Laws, of Harpenden, Hertfordshire, raised some opium last year equal to any Turkey which I have ever examined. It is, however, improbable that opium will ever be made in large quantities in England.

In Bengal, the seeds are sown in quadrangular areas, and the intervals formed into channels for conveying water to each area.

1 Professor Murray, in his excellent Apparatus Medicaminum, has committed a ludicrous mistake in quoting from Chardin;-he says, "assequitur subinde stirps magnitudinem quadraginta pedum in Persia, et capsular interdum in Arabia ad amplitudincm triginta quinque unciarum capacem perveniunt." The poppies in Persia and Arabia are not larger than those in England.

2 The seeds are not narcotic, but alimentary; thence the appellations ahnwn, cereale, vescum, given to the poppy by the ancient poets.

capsules: thence these are the only officinal parts of the plant, and for them chiefly is the plant cultivated in this country. They are gathered as they ripen; and as this happens at different times, there are annually three or four gatherings. It would be better, however, to gather them whilst they are yet green, as in this state they contain more proper juice than when ripe. They are brought to market in bags, each containing about 3000 capsules, and sold to the druggists.1

The milky juice of the poppy, in its more perfect state, is extracted by incisions made in the capsules, and inspissated; and in this state forms the opium of commerce.2 The period for commencing this operation is when the petals fall and the capsule assumes a whitish hue. The mode of obtaining it appears to have been nearly the same in the time of Dios-corides as it is at this day. The plants, which should be six inches apart during their growth, are carefully watered and manured, the watering being more profuse as the period of flowering approaches, and until the capsules are half grown, when it is discontinued, and the collection of the opium commences. At sunset, longitudinal incisions are made upon each half-ripe capsule3, with an instrument which is called nahrea in India, and which has five sharp points. The incisions pass from below upwards, and do not penetrate to the internal cavity. The night dews favour the exudation of the juice, which is collected in the morning, before the dew is dispersed, by old women and children, who scrape it from off the wounds with a small iron scoop, and deposit the whole in an earthen pot4, where it is worked by wooden spatulas in the sunshine, until it attains a considerable degree of spissitude.

The collection is repeated every second day for a fortnight or three weeks. The whole of the collections are then formed by the hand into cakes, which are laid in earthen basins to adding sometimes, the juice of the poppy, or the juice of the capsule. Some suppose that the Nepenthes of Homer (Odyssey, iv. 220. v.) was opium; but this opinion is completely disproved by Dr. Christen, in his excellent work, entitled, Opium Historice, Chemice, atque Pharmacologice Investigatum. Vindobonaj, 8vo. 1820.

1 The London market is chiefly supplied from Mitcham in Surrey. The average price of each bag, containing 3000 capsules, is about 41. 10s,-Stevenson's Survey, 382.

2 In tracing the origin of the name Opium, we find that the ancient inhabitants of India and of Egypt, and the Arabians, called the inspissated juice of the capsule of the poppy, affion; the Persians, afiuun, or abe-oon; the Moors, affirm , and by the modern Turks it is termed affioni. The Greeks named it opion, a word derived from opos, a juice.

3 In India, the incisions are made in the capsules seven days after the petals fall, when the capsule begins to harden.

4 In some parts it is collected in a small brass pot, or a cocoa-nut shell, containing a little linseed oil.

be further exsiccated, when it is covered over with poppy or tobacco leaves.1 Such is the mode followed in India, and according to Koempfer's account nearly the same is practised in Persia2: and when the juice is drawn in a similar manner in this country, and inspissated, it has all the characters of pure opium.3