Order 6. Nymphceacece. 1 3 



leaves one to two feet in diameter, petioles and pedicels 3 or 

 4 feet long, hollow ; flowers red or white, sepals 5 with 2 

 bracts ; fruit large, top-shaped, enclosing many carpels, the 

 tops of which project like knobs. Kamal, point, poira. 



Common in tanks throughout India. 



" The large-leaved lotus on the waters flowering." Southey. 

 This is the sacred lotus of India : Sanscrit padmd ; and as Brahma, 

 the self-existent, sprang from a lotus before the creation of the world, 

 it may by some be considered the first of all vegetable forms. 



"The black seeds in China, and some parts of India, are served 

 at table in place of almonds, which they are said to resemble." 

 Tennant's " Ceylon." 



ORDER 7. PAPAVERACE-ffi. Poppies. 



Herbs with milky juice and radical and alternate leaves, 

 flowers regular, sepals 2, concave, petals 4, stamens very 

 many, style short or none, stigmas radiating. 



A well-known order of temperate climes, with considerable re- 

 semblance to Ranunculacese. The petals and stamens fall off very 

 quickly. There are no species wild in the plains of India, but that 

 given below is one of the commonest of imported weeds. 



ARGEMONE. Prickly with yellow juice and flowers ; stigma 

 4 to 7 lobed, capsule many-seeded. 



A . Mexicana. Mexican or prickly poppy. A stout, branched 

 plant ; leaves sessile, pinnatifid, sinuate, much variegated with 

 white ; flowers large, bright yellow ; capsule oblong opening 

 at the top usually bristly. Dar-uri, Kdnte-dJiotra. 



" It has spread like a weed all over the tropics." Bentham. Oil for 

 lamps is extracted from the seeds, which are purgative and diuretic. 



Papaver somniferum is the garden poppy of England, the opium 

 poppy of India, fields of which, red, purple and white, may be seen 

 occasionally in Guzerat, but in perfection in Central India. 



" The poppy fields (near Chittagong) resembled a carpet of dark 

 green velvet, sprinkled with white stars, or a green lake studded 

 with water lilies."' Hooker. 



ORDER 8. FUMARIACE^l. Fumitories. 



Herbs with divided leaves and very irregular flowers ; sepals 

 2, small, deciduous, petals 4 in unequal pairs, stamens 6 in 2 

 bundles. 



A small order with great peculiarities of petals. In the " Genera 

 Plantar um " it is given as a sub -order of Papaveracece. 



EUMARIA. Segments of leaves very narrow ; petals, two 



