NAT. ORDER. 



PapaveraccB. 



PAPAVER ORIENTALE. EASTERN POPPY. 



Class XIII. PoLYANDRiA. Order I. Monogynia. 



Gen. Char. Corolla, four-petalled. Calyx, two-parted. Capsule, 



one-celled, opening by pores under the persistent stigma. 

 Spe. Cliar. Calyces and Capsules, smooth. Leaves, incised, and 



embracing the stem. 



The root is perennial, creeping, branched, and somewhat 

 jointed or knotty ; the stalk is generally erect, and rises from three 

 to four feet in height, branched, of a glaucous green color, round, 

 and cylindrical ; the leaves, which are always very large, are al- 

 ternately placed upon the stalks, lobed, deeply cut into various 

 segments, and very closely embracing the stem ; the Jlowers are 

 large, solitary, and terminal ; the calyx consists of two very smooth 

 ovate, concave segments, which fall when the flower expands ; 

 the petals are large, roundish, entire, somewhat undulated, and of a 

 beautiful orange red color ; the filaments are numerous, slender, 

 shorter than the corolla, and support erect, compressed anthers ; 

 the germen is roundish, with a many-rayed stigma ; the capsule is 

 smooth, large, and filled with a large number of small seeds. 



This sjiecies of the Poppy is a native of the warm regions 

 of Asia. In Persia and Arabia it is extensively cultivated for the 

 manufacturing of opium, for which purpose it is considered but 

 little, if at all, inferior to the Papaver somniferum. Every part 

 of the plant possesses the peculiar odor and taste of opium ; but 

 the milky juice, which is the active ingredient, principally resides 

 in the capsules, and is gathered in a similar mannor as that of the 



Vol. iii.— 19 



