Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/734

 714 POPPY to the south of Europe and adjacent parts of Asia, and there is another centre in California and the neighboring states, where a similar climate is found. The genus papaver is dis- tinguished from the rest of the family mainly by having its globular or oblong ovary and fruit crowned by a sessile -circular disk, upon which the stigmas radiate from the centre ; within there are as many incomplete cells, formed by the projection of the placentas into the cavity, as there are stigmas, and the fruit when ripe opens by as many pores, just under the disk, to liberate the seeds ; the petals are crumpled within the flower bud. There are 14 species of poppy, one in southern Africa, one in Australia, and the others in the temper- ate and subtropical parts of Europe, Asia, and northern Africa; but one species is native in the United States, and, what is rather remark- able, while other weeds of agriculture have become perfectly naturalized, the three or four Common Poppy (Papaver somniferum). species of poppy so common in the grain fields and other cultivated grounds in Europe are exceedingly rare in this country, and though they have been introduced they occur in re- stricted localities, showing no disposition to spread. The opium or common poppy (P. somniferum), besides being the species which affords the valuable drug (see OPIUM), is also the original of most of the garden poppies. It is a native of southern Europe, and both here and in England is to be found partially naturalized in waste places, having escaped from gardens. It is smooth and glaucous, with its toothed or lobed leaves clasping the stem at base ; in its single state it has but four petals, which are white or purple ; the garden forms are often very double and of various colors, such as white, rose, lilac, violet, and sometimes striped with these, and frequently with the petals beautifully fringed; this, and all other annuals of the family, should be sown where they are to flower, and after they are well up be thinned to six inches apart, as it is almost impossible to transplant them successfully. The single poppy is much cultivated in Europe for the capsules, which are an article of com- merce under the name of poppy heads, and for the seeds; the capsules vary greatly in size and form, in some soils being three inches in diameter, which is twice the usual size ; some are globose, others depressed and much broad- er than long, and they are sometimes met with greatly elongated. Poppy capsules are much used abroad for making a fomentation for pain- ful affections, and for the sirup of poppies. The capsules owe whatever efficacy they may have to the morphia they may contain, and this is very variable, depending upon the local- ity where they are grown and the time of gathering ; while some chemists have found in them 2 per cent, of morphia, others have failed to detect any whatever. The sirup of poppies, sometimes used in medicine for children, is a preparation which has no advantages over a sirup of morphia of corresponding strength, and the great disadvantage of containing vary- ing quantities of the opium alkaloids; it is moreover apt to spoil ; in fact, the preparations known by this name are likely to be made, not from poppy heads, but from opium or morphia. The seeds, usually white, but sometimes black, are very numerous, and show under a magnifier a handsomely reticulated surface ; they have a pleasant nut-like flavor, and, being without any of the narcotic properties of the plant, are used as food in various countries. In opium- producing countries the seeds, which appear to ripen perfectly in the capsules which have been scarified for opium, are an important part of the crop ; they yield about a third of their weight of a bland, well flavored oil, which, though a drying oil, may be used when fresh as olive oil ; the cake left after expression is a valuable food for domestic animals. The field poppy, P. rhceas, known to the ancients as rhceas, is the common corn poppy or corn rose, found in the greatest abundance in the grain fields throughout Europe, but is prob- ably truly indigenous only in the southernmost parts of that continent. It has an erect stem, 1 or 2 ft. high, with stiff spreading hairs ; the flowers are large, of a rich scarlet color, with a dark violet eye in the centre ; the small smooth capsule is globular. The petals of this species are used in European pharmacy for their coloring matter solely, as they have no narcotic property. Semi-double and double varieties of this species, though their odor is unpleasant, are cultivated in gardens as French poppies and African rose, where they make a most brilliant show. The long-headed poppy, P. dubium, is scarcely to be distinguished from the preceding; it has more cut leaves and rath- er smaller flowers, but the chief difference is in the capsule, which is smooth and often twice as long as broad. This weed of European ag- riculture is sparingly naturalized in Pennsyl-