272 MANUAL OF BOTANY 



thus formed is ultimately absorbed, and appears to be necessary 

 for the healthy condition of the plants. 



Order 55. Papaverace^, the Poppy Order. — Character. — 

 Herbs or shrubs, usually with a milky juice (white or coloured). 

 Leaves alternate, exstipulate. Sejjals usually 2 or rarely 3, 

 caducous. Petals 4 (figs. 1032 and 1033), or rarely 6, or some 

 multiple of 4, or very rarely wanting ; usually crumpled in 

 aestivation, hypogynous. Stamens generally numerous and 

 hypogynous ; anthers 2-celled, innate. Ovary 1 -celled, with 2 or 

 more parietal placentas, which project more or less from the walls 

 into its cavity, and in Bomneya actually cohere in the axis ; 

 styles absent or very short ; stigmas 2 or many, alternate with 

 the placentas, and opposite the imperfect dissepiments ; when 

 numerous, they form a star-like process on the top of the ovary ; 

 ovules numerous. Fruit 1-celled, and either pod-shaped with 2 

 parietal placentas, or capsular with several placentas ; dehiscing 

 by valves or pores, or sometimes indehiscent. Seeds usually 

 numerous ; embryo in fleshy-oily albumen. 



Diagnosis. — Usually herbs with a milky juice. Leaves 

 alternate and exstipulate. Peduncles 1-flowered ; flowers regular 

 and symmetrical. Calyx and corolla with a binary or ternary 

 arrangement of their parts, deciduous, hypogynous. Stamens 

 numerous, generally hypogynous ; anthers 2-celled, innate. 

 Ovary compound, 1-celled, with parietal placentas, stigmas 

 alternate to the placentas. Fruit 1-celled, except in Bomneya. 

 Seeds numerous, albuminous. 



Distribution and Numbers. — Nearly two-thirds of the plants 

 of this order are natives of Europe, and are mostly annuals. 

 They are almost unknown in tropical regions, and are but 

 sparingly distributed out of Europe in a wild condition. Illus- 

 trative Genera : — Papaver, Linn. ; Chelidonium, Linn. The 

 order includes above 130 species. 



Properties and Uses. — The plants of this order are in almost 

 all cases characterised by well-marked narcotic properties. 

 Some are acrid, while others are purgative. From a medicinal 

 point of view, this order must be regarded as the most important 

 in the Vegetable Kingdom on account of its yielding Opium, 

 undoubtedly the most valuable drug of the Materia Medica. 



Order 56. Fumariace^, the Fumitory Order. — Character. 

 — Smooth herbs with a watery juice. Leaves alternate, much 

 divided, exstipulate. Sepals 2, deciduous. Petals 4, cruciate, 

 very irregular, in two whorls ; one or both of the outer petals 

 being gibbous or spurred, and the two inner frequently united 



