The Chinese, having obtained the seeds, cultivated the opium-poppy, and made opium before the prepared article was imported in any great quantity from India. There is, of course, no doubt as to the injury which is done to a population by the habitual use of opium. At the same time, there is no one who knows anything about medicine and the use of drugs who does not speak of opium with reverence and even affection. Forty years ago, at a dinner-party where the leading physicians of London were present, it was suggested that they should each write down in order of merit the ten drugs to which they attached the greatest value. I heard from one who was present that they all put opium in the first place, and that mercury, iodide of potassium, and ipecacuanha followed in that order in the majority of the lists. The value of opium as a medicinal agent is one thing; its deadly effect on those who have become victims to its daily use is another. The origin of the medicinal use of opium can be traced to Egypt in Pliny’s time, but beyond that nothing is known. As I am writing of botanical matters, I may briefly refer to an ambiguity about the names “banana” and “plantain.” There is no difference (as is sometimes suggested) between the fruits indicated by these two words. Our word “plantain” is merely a corruption of the Spanish word _platano_, which is the name of the plane-tree. It was loosely applied in South America by the Spanish colonists to the banana palm (_Musa sapientum_), just as they called the North American bison a buffalo, and as the Anglo-Americans call a stag an elk, and a red thrush a robin. The banana palm is not an American tree, but was introduced there from the East Indies by the early navigators, and was very soon cultivated by the South American Indians as well as by the colonists. There have been great authorities—for instance, Humboldt—who have believed that there is a native South American banana palm as well as an East Indian one; but the definite conclusion of botanists, after careful inquiry, is that there is only one species, and that it is of South Asian origin. There are an enormous number of cultivated varieties—forty-four are described; they can all be arranged in two groups, the large-fruited bananas (fruit 7 inches to 15 inches long), and the small-fruited bananas, commonly called fig-bananas (fruits 1 inch to 6 inches long). All are equally entitled to the name “plantain” as well as “banana.” The finest flavoured varieties are cultivated in Hindustan, and there only, being often of very great value and rarity. Those which come into the English market are chiefly, if not entirely, of West Indian production. The foliage of the banana palm consists of oblong leaves of magnificent size and unbroken surface; small trees are to be seen in hothouses (they bear fruit at Kew), and are frequently used for decorative purposes.