142 



PAPAVERACEAE. 



Family 1. PAPAVERACEAE B. Juss. 

 POPPY FAMILY. 



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

 rarely opposite. Stipules none. Flowers perfect, regular. Sepals 2 (rarely 

 3 or 4), caducous. Petals 4-6 or rarely more, imbricated, often wrinkled, 

 deciduous. Stamens hypogynous, distinct ; filaments filiform ; anthers longi- 

 tudinally dehiscent. Ovary 1, many-ovuled, mainly 1-celled; style short; 

 ovules anatropous. Fruit a capsule, generally dehiscent by a pore, or by 

 valves. About 23 genera and 115 species, widely distributed, most abun- 

 dant in the north temperate zone. 



Leaves not spiny-toothed. 

 Leaves spiny-toothed. 



1. Papaver. 



2. Argemone. 



1. PAPAVER [Tourn.] L. 



Sap milky. Leaves lobed or dissected, alternate. Flowers and flower-buds 

 nodding. Sepals 2 or occasionally 3. Petals 4-6. Stamens oo. Anthers ex- 

 trorse. Ovules co, borne on numerous internally-projecting placentae. Stigmas 

 united into a radiate persistent disk. Capsule globose, obovoid, or oblong, de- 

 hiscent near the summit. 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. 1. P. somniferum. 

 Green, hirsute ; leaves pinnately divided. 



Capsule subglobose or top-shaped. 



Capsule oblong, narrowed below. 



2. P. Rhocas 



3. P. dubium. 



1. Papaver somniferum L. OPIUM 

 OR GARDEN POPPY. (Fig. 163.) Erect, 

 glaucous, l-3 high. Leaves clasping 

 by a cordate base, 4'-8' long, oblong, 

 wavy, lobed or toothed; flowers 2'-4' 

 broad, bluish-white with a purple centre; 

 filaments somewhat dilated upward; cap- 

 sule glabrous. 



Waste grounds, escaped from cultiva- 

 tion. Occasional in gardens. Introduced. 

 Native of Europe. Occasional in waste 

 grounds in the eastern United States. 

 Flowers from spring to autumn. 



The Bermuda Opium Act of 1914 has 

 the following paragraph relative to this 

 plant : 



" 2. It shall not be lawful to grow or 

 cultivate in these Islands the opium poppy 

 (papaver somniferum) for the purpose of 

 manufacturing opium therefrom, nor to 

 manufacture in these Islands any opium 

 from opium poppies grown in these Islands." 



