32
Extracted from the Dictionary of
PAPAVER
.
Poppy Cultivation ;
Somniferum.
CU LTIVATION
RACES.
Bengal
Malwa.
Var. 2nd, glabrum—A rather more robust, often profusely branched glabrous
plant, having the leaves less densely lobed than in the preceding; flowers red or purple
or variegated and the petals often deeply laciniated; capsules almost spherical, stigmas
10 to 12, dehiscing with openings below the stigmatic lobes.
Cultivated for its opium in Asia Minor, Egypt, and Persia.
Var. 3rd, album—A glabrous plant with ovate globose capsules, devoid of the
openings below the stigmatic surface which are met with in the other forms. It seems
probable that red and even variegated flowers occur in this variety, though of course
less frequently than in the second form mentioned above.
Cultivated for its opium in India and parts of Persia.
Races.—In the Bengal plantations (an expression which will be understoo
d
to cover the area from which Patna and Benares Agencies derive their sup
-
plies) the plant generally grown is a white-flowered form of Papaver somni
-
ferum with pale-coloured capsules, safaid dherri (i e.,white capsuled). As
already remarked, Mr. Scott devoted much careful study to the subject of the
races of Indian cultivated poppies. He describes three sets of forms: first,
three depauperated states (escapes from careful cultivation) which he speaks
of as "degenerated or wild forms which are so often seen under neglected hus
-
bandry ;" second, three cross-bred forms, which he produced from one of his
so-called wild species with certain well-known Indian races ; and, third, some
20 cultivated states, known to the opium-growers, of which four had been ob
-
tained from Malwa. These 20 forms might be viewed as the Indian produced
races of the plant. Before proceeding to deal with these it may perhaps
be as well to state here that although Mr. Scott devoted his well-known
energies to the subject, all that has as yet been accomplished has been the
establishment of the relative value of the various races grown. Much
still remains to be done both of a practical and scientific character. It
may, in fact, be said that absolutely no progress has been made towards a
scientific classification of the cultivated poppies of India. And it need
scarcely be remarked that such a classification should naturally precede
practical generalisations. Far from this being so, the greatest ambiguity
and confusion prevails in works on the subject. Thus the authors of the
Pharmacographia Indica say, "The poppy generally cultivated in India
is the P. somniferum var. album, with white flowers and white seeds ; but
a red-flowered and black seeded variety is met with in the Himálayas."
Speaking of the Malwa poppy these authors add, "It is stated that the
variety grown there is the P. glabrum. " Messrs. Duthie & Fuller (Field
< i l l e g i b l e > G a r d e n C r o p s
) ,
on the other hand, inform us that the varieties grown in
the North-West Provinces "are all of the white flowered kind, which is
found better suited to the climate than the red or purple flowered kind,
extensively grown in Malwa." In the passage quoted above, Dr. Lyell
makes mention of the Malwa poppy being the purple plant, a form
probably quite distinct from what is generally spoken of as the red. In
the Himálaya a red flowered plant is certainly by no means so prevalent
as the white, and, indeed, a parti-coloured stock is sometimes seen as
more common than the pure coloured forms. If, therefore, any part of
India could be specialised as having a red poppy, it would be Malwa, but
whether that is actually P. somniferum var. glabrum does not appear to
have been determined by any competent botanist. Scott, who cultivated
at Patna four forms of the Malwa poppy, vis., lukria, líla , gungajulí, and
uggarya, while he says their flowers were coloured or partly coloured, does
not say that they were forms of the variety glabrum. He was perhaps not
botanist enough to have been able to recognise the varieties of the species,
but as he furnishes careful descriptions of the numerous plants grown by
him, it would scarcely be justifiable to assume that he failed to recognise
that the capsules of the Malwa poppy opened by small pores below the
stigmatic folds, while the Bengal poppies were indehiscent, if that was
actually characteristic of them. The fact, therefore, of his not observing