136 



LAURACEAE. 



VOL. II. 



2. Benzoin melissaefolium (Walt.) Nees. 

 Hairy Spice-bush. Fig. 1972. 



Laurus melissaefolia Walt. Fl. Car. 134. 1788. 



Lindera melissaefolia Blume, Mus. Bot. Lugd. i : 324. 

 1857. 



Benzoin melissaefolium Nees, Syst. 494. 1836. 



A shrub similar to the preceding species but 

 the young twigs, buds and lower surfaces of the 

 leaves densely pubescent. Leaves ovate-lanceo- 

 late or oblong, acute or acuminate at the apex, 

 rounded or subcordate at the base, 2'-^.' long, 

 9"-i8" wide; petioles i"-3" long; pedicels equal- 

 ling or slightly longer than the calyx-segments ; 

 anthers truncate at the summit; drupe 3"~5" 

 high. 



In swamps and wet soil, Illinois and Missouri to 

 North Carolina, south to Alabama and Florida. 

 Jove's-fruit. Feb.-March. 



Family 36. PAPAVERACEAE B. Juss. Hort. Trian. 1759. 



POPPY FAMILY. 



Herbs, with milky or colored sap, and alternate leaves or the upper rarely 

 opposite. Stipules none. Flowers solitary or in clusters, perfect, regular. 

 Sepals 2 (rarely 3 or 4), caducous. Petals 4-6 or rarely more, imbricated, often 

 wrinkled, deciduous. Stamens mostly numerous, hypogynous, distinct; filaments 

 filiform; anthers innate, longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary i, many-ovuled, mainly 

 i-celled, with parietal placentae; style short; stigma simple or divided; ovules 

 anatropous. Fruit a capsule, dehiscent by a pore, or by valves. Seeds mostly 

 numerous ; embryo small at the base of fleshy or oily endosperm. 



About 23 genera and 115 species, widely distributed, most abundant in the north temperate zone. 

 Pod dehiscent at the top, or only to the middle. 



Leaves not spiny-toothed. i. Papaver. 



Leaves spiny-toothed. 2. Argemone. 



Pod dehiscent to the base. 



Flowers white; petals 8-16 ; juice red. 3. Sanguinaria. 



Flowers and juice yellow ; petals 4. 



Capsule oblong or short-linear, bristly. 4. Stylophorum. 



Capsule long-linear, rough, tipped with a dilated stigma. 5. Glaucium. 



Capsule linear, smooth, tipped with a short subulate style and minute stigma. 



6. Chelidonium. 



i. PAPAVER [Tourn.] L. Sp. PI. 506. 1753. 



Hispid or glaucous herbs, with white milky sap, lobed or dissected alternate leaves, 

 nodding flower-buds and showy regular flowers. Sepals 2 or occasionally 3. Petals 4-6. 

 Stamens o. Anthers extrorse. Ovules oo, borne on numerous internally-projecting pla- 

 centae. Stigmas united into a radiate persistent disc. Capsule globose, obovoid, or oblong, 

 dehiscent near the summit by slits or pores. Seeds marked with minute depressions. [Classic 

 Latin name of the poppy.] 



About 45 species, mostly natives of the Old World, but 4 or 5 indigenous in western America. 

 Type species : Papaver somniferum L. 



Glabrate and glaucous; leaves lobed, clasping; capsule subglobose. i. P. somniferum. 



Green, hirsute ; leaves pinnately divided. 



Stems branching, leafy ; weeds of waste or cultivated ground. 

 Capsule glabrous. 



Capsule subglobose or top-shaped. 2 . P. Rhoeas. 



Capsule oblong-clavate, narrowed below. 3. P.dubimn. 



Capsule oblong, hispid with a few erect hairs. 4. P. Argemone. 



Leaves all basal ; capsule obovoid, densely hispid with erect hairs ; arctic. 5. P. nudicaule. 



