POPPY FAMILY 223 



1. Umbellularia californica (Hook. & Arn.) Nutt. California Laurel. Fig. 1882. 



Tetranthera californica Hook. & Arn. Bot. Beechey 159. 1833. 

 Oreodaphne californica Nees, Syst. Laurin. 463. 1836. 

 Umbellularia californica Nutt. N. Amer. Sylva 1 : 8. 1842. 



A handsome tree, 20-30 m. high, with a trunk up to 2.5 m. in diameter, the bark dark brown, 



about 2 cm. thick. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, 3-8 cm. long, 15-30 mm. wide, short-petioled, 



persisting for two or three years, emitting a strong pungent odor when bruised ; flowers 6-10 on 



each peduncle ; sepals 6-8 mm. long, oblong-ovate ; drupes usually solitary, becoming dark 



purple, with thin pulp and large ellipsoid smooth thin-walled stone. 



Canyon slopes and alluvial valleys, Transition and Upper Sonoran Zones; Umpqua River, Oregon, to San 

 Diego County, California. Type locality: collected by Menzies, probably in the vicinity of San Francisco or 

 Monterey. Jan.-April. Known also as Bay Tree, Pepperwood, Oregon Myrtle. 



Family 50. PAPAVERACEAE. 

 Poppy Family. 



Herbs or rarely shrubs, with white, yellow or colorless sap. Leaves alternate 

 or the upper sometimes opposite, exstipulate. Flowers regular, perfect, solitary or 

 clustered, hypogynous but in Eschscholzia the receptacle expanded into a funnelform 

 hypanthium-like structure on the rim of which are borne the perianth and stamens. 

 Sepals 2, rarely 3 or 4, distinct or united into a calyptra, caducous. Petals 4 or 6, or 

 rarely none, imbricated, deciduous. Stamens few or more commonly numerous, 

 hypogynous, distinct ; anthers opening by longitudinal slits. Pistil with 2 to several 

 carpels united into a 1- to several-celled ovary, rarely only loosely united and 

 becoming distinct in fruit; style short or none; stigma simple or divided; ovules 

 usually many, on parietal placentae, anatropous. Pruit a capsule, generally de- 

 hiscent by pores or valves. 



A family of 23 genera and about 120 species, most abundant in western North America. 



Leaves mainly opposite or whorled and entire. 



Stamens numerous; carpels 9-18, separating and torulose in fruit; petals tardily deciduous. 



1. Platystemon. 



Stamens 6-12; carpels 3, rarely 4, united into a 3-lobed or nearly terete ovary; petals early deciduous. 



r . , i i , . „ , „ 2. Meconella. 



Leaves alternate, toothed or lobed except in Canbya and Dendromecon. 



Plants tall, shrubby at least at base. 



Flowers white, very large; leaves lobed; capsule ovoid. 3. Romneya. 



Flowers yellow; leaves entire; capsule linear. 4. Dendromecon. 



Plants herbaceous. 



Perianth and stamens borne on the rim of the hypanthium-like expansion of the receptacle; sepals 



united into a calyptra. 5. Eschscholzia. 



Perianth and stamens strictly hypogynous; sepals not united into a calyptra. 

 Stamens numerous. 



Capsule 2-celIed and bicarpellary, long-linear, dehiscent the entire length. 6. Glaucium. 

 Capsule 1-celled, composed of several carpels, ovoid. 



Herbage not prickly or long-villous; capsules dehiscing by means of small openings just 

 beneath the truncate summit. 



Ovary and capsule tipped by the slender style terminating in the small globose stigma. 



7. Meconopsis. 

 Ovary and capsule capped by the flat sessile circular disk of radiating stigmas. 



8. Pa paver. 

 Herbage prickly or long-villous; capsules dehiscing from the apex by 4-6 valves. 



Plants more or less prickly. 9. Argemone. 



Plants more or less densely long-villous. 10. Arctomecon. 



Stamens 6-9; minute desert annual. H_ Canbya. 



1. PLATYSTEMON Benth. Trans. Hort. Soc. Lond. II. 1 : 405. 1835. 



Low villous annuals with entire, mainly opposite leaves and cream-colored flowers. 

 Sepals 3, distinct. Petals 6, tardily deciduous. Stamens many, with flattened filaments 

 and linear anthers. Carpels 6-25, at first united, becoming separate in fruit; stigmas 

 linear, free. Fruit composed of linear torulose 3-8-seeded pods, indehiscent, but at length 

 breaking transversely between the seeds. [Name Greek, meaning broad stamen, in refer- 

 ence to the dilated filaments.] 



A monotypic genus of western North America. 



1. Platystemon californicus Benth. Cream Cup. Fig. 1883. 



Platystemon californicus Benth. Trans. Hort. Soc. Lond. II. 1 : 405. 183S. 



Stems slender, branching from the base and more or less decumbent, 15-30 cm. long, 



