32 



BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS 



upright and forking, and the stem, leaves, and outer 

 side of the calyx are set with stiff hairs. The root- 

 leaves are entire, oval and serrated, but those of 

 the stem are pinnate and deeply fissured. The 

 bright scarlet petals of the corolla are darker at 

 the base, and fan-shaped. The sepals are oval 

 and concave. The seed-capsules are oval, with 

 10 or 15 ridges on the outer side. The whole 

 plant has a very disagreeable odour. 



The Garden Poppy (Papaver somniferuni) is a 

 larger and less hairy plant, with a bluish-white 

 flower. When the capsules and stem are scored, 

 a white bitter juice exudes from them, which soon 

 hardens into brown opium. 



The White or Garden Poppy is widely spread in 

 Europe and Asia, and is naturalised in some parts 

 of Britain ; and although most of the opium used 

 here comes from Turkey or Asia Minor, the plant 

 is occasionally cultivated in Britain for the sake 

 of the poppy-heads, which are used in medicine, 

 and the seeds, which are employed in confectionery, 

 or to prepare oil. Much opium is grown in 

 India, chiefly for export to China. The stamens 



in Garden Poppies often become changed into 

 petals, rendering the flower double, more handsome, 

 but sterile. 



One of the most interesting of the wild poppies 

 is the beautiful Yellow Horned Poppy (Glaucium 

 luteum), which grows all round our coasts on the 

 shingle of the seashore, a little above high-water 

 mark. 



The flowers are of a bright yellow, and the 

 leaves glaucous green. In place of a capsule, we 

 find a long double pod, 6 or 8 inches in length, 

 containing the seeds. There is a somewhat similar 

 arrangement in the seed-pod of the Columbine, a 

 plant with large compound deeply lobate leaves 

 and small yellow flowers, which exudes a highly 

 acrid and foetid yellow juice, and which is included 

 in the present Order. It is not uncommon in 

 waste places in Britain and on the Continent. 

 In California there is a genus allied to the Poppies 

 named Eschscholtzia, after the famous traveller 

 and naturalist Eschscholtz. They are low-growing 

 plants, with handsome yellow or white flowers 

 nearly 2 inches in expanse, and the seeds are 



