50 POISONOUS PLANTS 



niger. These seeds have a certain piquant and 

 acrid flavour. They are the " fitches " of Scripture, 

 and are still used in Germany and the East for 

 seasoning dishes, or cakes, on which they are 

 sprinkled, as we do with caraway-seeds. 



The remaining and less common members of the 

 Buttercup family {Ranunculacece), whether wild or 

 cultivated, are all more or less poisonous, so that 

 it will not be necessary to add further remarks, 

 except to warn parents and guardians, and all who 

 have the charge of children, to see that they never 

 put anything growing wild in their mouths, nor 

 anything cultivated in the flower-garden. 



Poppy Family {Papaveracece). — We have four 

 indigenous poppies, and the Opium poppy as an 

 occasional escape (Fig. 13). They are cornfield weeds 

 with rough, divided leaves and scarlet flowers. 

 The calyx has only two sepals, which fall off" as the 

 bud opens ; four free petals, numerous stamens 

 with purple-black anthers, and a pistil of several 

 coherent carpels. There is no style, so that the 

 crown-like stigma rests on the ovary ; which, when 

 ripened into a capsule, bursts by pores at the 

 summit, under the edges of the stigmatic crown. 



They are all characterized by having a milky 

 juice, which when coagulated constitutes crude 

 opium. It is acrid and narcotic. 



Opium Poppy {Papaver somniferum). — Unlike 

 the wild poppies, this has a smooth stem and foliage. 



