86 PAPAVERACEJE. 



stomachic in dyspeptic affections. In over-doses it produced in his own 

 person some cerebral disturbance, which he attributed to the presence of 

 a narcotic principle. And to this narcotic principle he attributed also 

 some of the relief obtained by use of the plant in painful indigestion. 



PAPAVERACE/C. 



Character of the Order. Annual or perennial herbs, with a thick colored 

 or milky juice, regular flowers, the parts in twos or fours, numerous hy- 

 pogynous stamens, and a 1-celled ovary, with 2 or more parietal placentae. 

 Sepals usually 2, rarely 3, falling when the bud opens. Petals 4 to 12, 

 rarely more, spreading, commonly crumpled in the bud, and of short du- 

 ration. Fruit a dry capsule or pod, containing numerous small, oily seeds. 

 Leaves alternate, without stipules ; commonly covered with a bloom. Pe- 

 duncles generally 1-flowered. 



A family of plants represented in the United States by about a dozen 

 genera, comprising altogether a not much greater number of species, of 

 which but two are of any medicinal importance. Indeed, the entire order 

 as distributed over the globe is, with a few notable exceptions chiefly pa- 

 paver and sauguinaria comparatively unimportant, either medicinally or 

 economically. They generally possess acrid and more or less narcotic 

 properties. 



SANGUIN ARI A. BLOODROOT. 



Sanguinaria Canadensis Linne. Bloodroot. 



Description. Calyx : sepals 2, light green, falling as the bud opens. 

 Corolla : petals 8 to 12 or more, one-half to 1 inch long, oblong-spatulate, 

 spreading, white or slightly rose-tinted, increasing in size for two or three 

 days after the bud opens, and then falling away. Stamens about 24, in 

 several rows, much shorter than the petals, those in the inner rows long- 

 est ; anthers narrow, opening longitudinally. Ovary linear-oblong, 1- 

 celled ; style short, stigma 2-grooved. Capsule oblong, pointed at both 

 ends, tipped with the style, 1-celled, 2-valved. Seeds numerous, roundish, 

 smooth, with a prominent ridge along the raphe. 



An herbaceous perennial, having a thick, fleshy, fibrous-rooted rhizome, 

 1 to 3 inches long, from which are sent up in early spring one or more simple, 

 round scapes, each bearing a single flower, which expands in advance of 

 the unfolding of the leaf enclosing it as it emerges from the ground. The 

 leaves, all radical, are, when first unfolded, about 7-lobed, but become, 

 later in the season, broadly reniform, and attain a breadth of 6 to 7 inches. 

 They are borne upon long channelled petioles, are dark shining green above, 

 grayish-green and strongly reticulated beneath. The rhizome is reddish- 

 brown externally, paler within, and pours out, when wounded, an abun- 

 dance of reddish orange-colored juice, whence the common name of the 



