ones small and scarcely pinnatifid. Flowers large, in pani- 

 cles. Calyx caducous, of three concave, glabrous leaves, 

 each lengthened into a soft horn. Petals six, nearly or- 

 bicular, pure white, and extremely delicate. Stamens nu- 

 merous, spreading, and lying over each other with great 

 regularity, orange -yellow. Pistil obtusely four -angled, 

 lmear-oblong. Stigma nearly sessile, rich purple, downy, 

 with four impressed, bright blue spots. Capsule (scarcely 

 mature) oblong, with a few soft, spinous hairs, one-celled, 

 with four parietal receptacles, to which many seeds are 

 attached. 



Introduced by Mr. Barclay among many other rarities 

 from Mexico ; and now, by that gentleman's well-known 

 liberality, it has become a not uncommon inmate of our 

 gardens, producing freely its Ene white blossoms with their 

 orange stamens and brilliant stigma, through the whole 

 summer months. Its stem and peduncles are quite smooth, 

 and the fruit has only a few soft spinous teeth, possessing 

 none of those " sharpe and venomous prickles," described 

 by old Gerarde as characteristic of the A. mexicana, of 

 such a nature, " that whosoever had one of them in his 

 throte, doubtless it would send him either to heaven or to 

 hell *." 



* See the account of Argemone mexicana in t. 243 of the Old Series of 

 this Work. 



Fig. 1, Stamen. 2. Section of an unripe Capsule. 



