82 PAPAVERACE^. 



Oedee VIII. PAPAVERACE^. 



By a. Gray ; the genus Arctomecon by B. L. Robinson. 



Mostly colored- juiced herbs, with mostly alternate leaves, no stipules, and 

 narcotic or acid qualities ; flowers hermaphrodite, hypogynous, polyandrous, 

 dimerous or sometimes trimerous i. e. sepals 2, rarely 3, and caducous, petals 

 double to quadruple (or even sextuple) that number and commonly very decidu- 

 ous ; the ranks imbricated in the bud ; pistil of 2 to many carpels combined to 

 form a one-celled ovary with parietal placentae. Filaments filiform, or rarely 

 dilated, distinct : anthers innate. Ovules anatropous, numerous. Fruit capsular. 

 Seeds with small or minute embryo at base of fleshy and oily albumen. — Several 

 genera have more or less colorless juice. Dendromecon is shrubby. Platystemon 

 has carpels in flower partly and in fruit becoming wholly distinct Glaucium 

 has a falsely 2-celled ovary, and the placentae in Poppy, «&;c., may meet in the 

 axis. Eschscholtzia, besides its calyptrate calyx, has a cupulate-dilated seem- 

 ingly perigynous disk. Platystemon and yet more Canbya and Arctomecon retain 

 their petals until fruiting. Platystigma and Canbya may have very few stamens. 

 Bucconia is apetalous. And the leaves are usually opposite or verticillate and 

 entire in the first tribe. So, although one of the most distinct of orders, it teems 

 with exceptions. 



Tribe I. PLATYSTEMONE^. Leaves mainly opposite or whoiied and entire. 

 Flowers usually S-merous, i. e. sepals 3 and obovate petals 6 in two series. Ovary 

 mostly lobed or angled: stigmas distinct, one terminating each carpel, alternate 

 with the placentffi, which never separate from the valves. No dilated torus under 

 the flower. Flower-buds usually drooping on the peduncle : anthesis for more 

 than one day. Juice watery or yellowish. 



1. PLATYSTEMON. Stamens numerous: filaments petaloid, obovate or spatulate. 

 Stigmas subulate-filiform. Carpels 9 to 18, each several-ovuled, at first all united iu a circle 

 into a deeply plurisulcate compound ovary by as many parietal placentas, in fruit separating 

 and closing into as many torose narrow follicles, which when mature are disposed to break 

 up transversely into a few one-seeded joints ! Petals tardily deciduous ! 



2. PLATYSTIGMA. Flowers occasionally 2-merous, i. e. Avith 2 sepals and 4 petals. 

 Stamens 6 to 12, rarely 4 : filaments from lanceolate-subulate to filiform. Carpels 3, rarely 

 4, wholly combined into a somewhat 3-lobed or angled or nearly terete ovary, having as 

 many pluri-ovulate strictly parietal placenta;; in fruit a thin-walled completely 3-valved 

 capsule, dehiscent through the placentiB. Stigmas ovate to subulate. Petals deciduous. 



Tribe II. PAPAVEREiE. Leaves alternate or mainly so. Flowers rarely 3-merous. 

 Ovary of 2 to 20 completely combined carpels; even the stigmas more or less 

 confluent or else radiate from a common centre, never more numerous than the 

 placentae : these when the capsule dehisces persisting as a frame alternate with 

 and freed from the valves, while held in place by attachment to receptacle below 

 and combined stigmas above. 



* Petals 4 or 6, usuallv scarious-marcescent and ])ersistent till the fruit is grown ! appar- 

 ently not crumpled in the bud : this drooping before antliesis: capsule ovoid, strictly 

 one-celled, 3-6-valved from above ; valves alternating with as many uerviform placentte. 



3. CANBYA. Sepals 3. Petals 6, obovate, after anthesis closing over the capsule. Stamens 

 6 cr 9 : filaments shorter than the oblong-linear anthers. Ovary and membranaceous cap- 



