36
Extracted from the Dictionary of
PAPAVER
Poppy Cultivation ;
somniferum.
CULTIVATION
Races.
Gunagun-
posta.
Malwa
Forms.
adjoining plots had been overrun and destroyed by the mould, this variety
resisted it very effectively, retaining to the last its normal functions for the
secretion of drug. This season (1875-76), which proved so very unfavour
-
able to the germination and health of the early-sown plant, thinned con
-
siderably my plot of this variety, but fortunately a sufficiency of plants
escaped to afford me a few seers of seed. The plant retains its robust
habit, setigerous flower-stalks, with the large spherical capsules."
This is the form alluded to above as approximating to the type of
Papaver setigerum.
Mr. Scott does not say that its capsules were
dehiscent, nor did he apparently record the number of its stigmatic folds.
(Conf. with the definition of var. setigerum, p 47.)
10th, Gunagun-posta, or Sufaid-patta. &#x2014;" This variety is distinguished
by the variegation of its leaves, stalks, and capsules, all of which are more
or less streaked and blotched with white. I first observed a few specimens
of it in the poppy plots here in 1873 and 1874. Like the preceding, it is
also but little liable to the poppy murrain. In my annnal reports for 1873
and 1874 to the Board of Revenue, I suggested what appeared to me to be
the cause for this comparative immunity of the variegated plant. Subse
-
quent observations confirm that view, which will be explained in treating
of the diseases and injuries of the poppy. In the meantime I may state
that last season (1874-75), when all thegenerally cultivated varieties, with
the exception of the kutila, were seriously affected with the poppy mould,
this variety was scarcely at all injured by it, the extension of the mould-
spawn in the leaf being wholly confined to the green streaks and blotches;
in no instance did I observe it cause any injury to the white parts. Un
-
fortunately there is at present one objection to the multiplication and
extension of this variety, and that is, its scanty drug-producing quality.
Thus the capsules, though of large size, about 2¼ inches in both diameters,
as being round and vertically compressed, rarely afford more than three
or four drug-yielding incisions. This will no doubt be obviated, however,
by continued selection of seed from the most copious drug-producing cap
-
sules. The opium has also ail the physical qualities of a good commercial
article and yields 6.57 per cent. of alkaloids."
The above ten special forms are those of the Bengal Agencies which
seem deserving of special notice. It may be as well, however, to give here
Mr. Scott's four forms of Malwa Poppies. He writes of these :
—
"I will briefly notice here four of the Malwa varieties which were intro
-
duced to this district in the season 1871-72, but all were clearly unsuited
to the climate and soil. They grew up spare and sickly, and Mr. Aber
-
crombie remarks in his report to the Board that they 'did not in any in
-
stance produce more than a seer of opium per bíghá, and generally only
a few chittacks, while local seed on adjacent lands produced in some cases
from eight to ten seers.' The cultivation of the Malwa varieties by the
Assamese was at once discontinued, and the seed they had collected pur
-
chased from them, to prevent them making use of it for the next season's
sowings. A small portion has been tried by some of the sub-divisional
officers in their gardens to ascertain whether the acclimatised seed will be
increasingly productive. In the following season (1872-73) there was but
a very slight increase in the opium produce, and I rather think the sub-
divisional officers very generally discontinued their cultivation. I, that
season having been specially deputed by Government to the opium dis
-tricts (to ascertain the nature of the poppy blights, and suggest, if possible
mitigative or remedial measures for them, as also to have regard to the
modes of improving the general husbandry of the plant), had likewise
seeds of the different Malwa sorts for trial in the gardens which I had
opened at Bankipore. The plants, however, grew up again poor and sick
-
ly, and gave a very small quantity of drug. In 1873-74 I repeated the