Stauntonia.'j berberide^e. 15 



In ravines, trailing on rocks, Champion, Wilford. Only known from S. China. 

 Nelumbium speciosum, Willd., belonging to the Order Nymphceacece , is occasionally cul- 

 tivated, but has not been found wild in the island. 



Order VII. PAPAVERACE^J. 



Sepals 2, rarely 3, deciduous. Petals 4, rarely 6, usually folded in the 

 bud. Stamens indefinite, free, hypogynous. Anthers versatile, opening with 

 longitudinal slits. Ovary free, compound, 1-celled, with 2 or more parietal 

 placentas, sometimes projecting into the cavity so as nearly to divide it into 

 as many cells. Style simple or none. Stigmas as many as placentas, usually 

 radiating on the top of the ovary or style. Fruit capsular or rarely a berry. 

 Seeds albuminous, with a small embryo next the hilum. 



A small Order, spread over the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, with a very 

 few southern extratropical species, and a few more now diffused as weeds over many tropical 

 countries. 



1. ARGEMONE, Linn. 



Stigmas 4 to 7, nearly sessile on the top of the ovary. Capsule obovate or 

 oblong, opening at the top in short valves between the parietal placentas. 

 — Leaves usually prickly. 



A small American genus. 



1. A. Mexicana, Linn.; Hook, and Thorns., M. Ind. i. 251 ; Bot. Reg. 

 £.1343. An erect hard glaucous and glabrous annual, 2 or 3 feet high, with 

 spreading branches. Leaves alternate, half-stem-clasping, sinuately pinnatifid, 

 and bordered with prickly teeth, spotted with white along the primary veins. 

 Flowers terminal, yellow, 1 to 3 inches diameter. Capsule about an inch 

 long. 



On the seacoast, on roadsides and waste places. An introduced weed, of American origin, 

 but now extremely abundant in India and other tropical countries. 



Order YIII. CKUCIFEILffi. 



Sepals 4. Petals 4. Stamens 6, of which 2 are usually shorter, hypogynous. 

 Ovary 2-celled, with one or more ovules in each cell. Style single, often very 

 short or almost none, with a capitate or 2-lobed stigma. Fruit a siliqua or 

 silicule, that is, a pod divided into 2 cells by a thin partition from which the 

 valves separate at maturity, or in a few genera the pod is 1-celled or indehis- 

 cent, or separates transversely into several joints. Seeds without albumen, 

 attached, in each cell, alternately to the right and left edges of the partitions. 

 Embryo much curved, the radicle either accumbent, i. e. folded against the 

 edge of the cotyledons, or incumbent, i. e. folded over the back of one of them. 

 Herbs or rarely undershrubs. Leaves alternate, without stipules. Flowers 

 in terminal racemes, usually very short and reduced to a corymb when the 

 flowering commences, but lengthening out as it advances. 



A large and widely diffused Order, most abundant however in the temperate regions of the 

 northern hemisphere. 





