PAP 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



PAP 



239 



smaller sorts may be allowed above half that space. The 

 culture they will require after this, is only to keep them 



clean from weeds. The species are, 



* With bristly Capsules. 



1. Papaver Hybridum ; Round Prickly -headed Poppy. 

 Capsules subglobular, torose, hispid; stem leafy, many- 

 flowered. The leaves are much smaller than those of the 

 common Corn Poppy, and are cut into much finer segments. 

 The stalks are slender, little more than a foot high, and not 

 so branching as in the fifth species. The flowers are not so 

 large, and of a deep purple colour, seldom lasting more than 

 a whole day; petals small, dark dirty scarlet; filamenta 

 deep purple ; antheree pleasant blue. It flowers in June and 

 July. Native of some of the southern parts of Europe, and 

 of England, among corn: it is found near Norwich; near 

 Wells in Norfolk; in the parks at Oxford, and Eynsham, in 

 Oxfordshire ; and in the neighbourhood of Durham. 



2. Papaver Argemone; Long Rough-headed Poppy. Cap- 

 sules club-shaped, hispid; stem leafy, many-flowered; leaves 

 finer cut and smaller than those of the common sort, but not 

 so fine as those of the preceding ; stalks not half so high as 

 either, seldom having many branches ; flowers not half so 

 large, of a copper colour, and falling away in a few hours. 

 They appear in May, and are succeeded by long slender 

 channelled capsules, filled with small black shrivelled seeds. 

 The divisions of the leaves are finer in this than in any of the 

 other Poppies ; the petals in general grow more upright, 

 and instead of having the edges falling over each other, are 

 usually a little distant; the filamenta are uncommonly dilated 

 at top, not at the base, as Haller asserts ; and the antheree 

 stand on a very slender pedicel, placed on the top of each 

 filamentum. It is annual, and, like most of the other Poppies, 

 usually grows in corn-fields, and is not uncommon about 

 London. It flowers at the beginning of June or July, and is 

 often overlooked from the extreme fugacity of its petals. It 

 is a native not only of most parts of Europe, but also of the 

 Levant. 



3. Papaver Alpinum ; Alpine Prickly-headed Poppy. 

 Capsule hispid ; scape one-flowered, naked, hispid ; leaves 

 bipinnate. The whole plant when fresh has a strong smell 

 of musk. Sterns nake~d, simple, with a bundle of leaves at 

 the base. It is a small perennial plant, hairy all over, and 

 grows in high rocky places, which are exposed to the wind, 

 and bare of grass. Scopoli remarks, that the variety with a 

 yellow flower is not so hairy. Dillenius describes the variety 

 with a white flower to be larger and more hairy, and with 

 paler leaves. Native of Switzerland, Austria, Carniola, Dau- 

 phiny, Piedmont, and Silesia. 



4. Papaver Nudicaule ; Naked-stalked Prickly-headed 

 Poppy. Capsules hispid; scape one-flowered, naked, his- 

 pid ; leaves simple, pinnate-sinuate. Roots slender, whitish, 

 fibrous, annual or biennial; root- leaves many, hispid, the 

 lowest broader and shorter, less deeply divided into fewer 

 and broader segments ; the leaves next above are divided 

 into many narrower and longer segments, glaucous, green, 

 especially underneath. From among these leaves rises a 

 single naked stalk, sometimes two, a long span or a foot in 

 height, somewhat glaucous, hispid, sustaining one flower of 

 a middling size. The flower has a fine sweet smell like the 

 Jonquil, especially morning and evening. It varies with 

 white and yellow flowers, which appear from June to August. 

 Native of Norway and Siberia. 



** With smooth Capsules. 



5. Papaver Rhreas ; Corn or Red Poppy. Capsules urn- 

 shaped, smooth ; stem hairy, many-flowered; leaves pinna- 

 tifid, gashed. Stem from one to two feet hie:h, urjright, 



VOL. ii. 8fi. 



round, branched, purplish at bottom, with spreading hairs, 

 bulbose at the base ; peduncles long, round, upright, one- 

 flowered, the hairs on it spreading horizontally; petals bright 

 full scarlet ; stigma convex, with ten or twelve rays of a purple 

 colour; seeds dark purple. There is a variety with an oval 

 black shining spot at the base of each petal, from which 

 many beautiful garden varieties originate ; some have double 

 flowers, some white, others red bordered with white, and 

 variegated. The petals give out a fine colour when infused, 

 and a syrup prepared from this infusion is kept in the shops, 

 more for the sake of the colour than of any active principle 

 the flowers possess, although this species partakes in a small 

 degree of the soporific quality of the Somniferum. The cap- 

 sules, as in that, contain a milky juice of a narcotic quality, 

 but the quantity is inconsiderable. An extract from them has 

 been successfully employed as a sedative; and some foreign 

 practitioners even prefer this extract to opium. It is said to 

 be very excellent in pleurisies, quinsies, and all disorders 

 of the breast. A strong tincture may be drawn from the 

 flowers with wine; and this is much better than the syrup, 

 for that is too much loaded with sugar to be given in suffi- 

 cient doses. Native of every part of Europe, the Levant, 

 Japan, &c. It is the commonest of all the species in Eng- 

 land, especially in corn-fields, also on dry banks, and on 

 walls, varying its foliage in such situations, but still retaining 

 the urn-shaped capsule and spreading hairs. It flowers from 

 June to August. Being so common a weed, it has many 

 provincial names in English, besides its more classical ones 

 of Corn Poppy, and Red or Scarlet Poppy ; such as Corn 

 Rose, Cop Rose, or Cup Rose, in Yorkshire ; and Canker or 

 Canker Rose, or Redweed, and also Headwark, in the eastern 

 counties. The quantities of this weed visible on some lands 

 is a disgrace to the farmer, which the brilliancy of the flowers 

 proclaims to the country round. Being an annual, it is easily 

 destroyed by good husbandry ; but, like other oily seeds, it 

 will lie long in the ground without corrupting, and is even 

 said to have vegetated after having been twenty-four years 

 buried. In Norfolk, hogs are frequently turned upon it, 

 and will eat it out with little or no damage to the wheat. 

 Others first feed with sheep, then with cattle, till April, tak- 

 ing them off when it rains much, if the land is not very light. 

 Upon dry soils, which are most subject to Poppy, it is the 

 method with some to plough tare and rape land for wheat, 

 in the beginning or middle of September, in order to sow in 

 the middle of October, as the harrowing kills the Poppy ; 

 and in putting in the seedHhey like to tread much with oxen 

 or sheep. Another way is to tread with oxen in March, 

 which is thought better against the Poppy than doing it at 

 sowing. This treading may destroy the present crop of 

 Poppy, but the hoard of seed remains in the ground to come 

 up on every ploughing. The only way to destroy such weeds 

 effectually, is to make them germinate by bringing them near 

 the surface, and then to cut and tear them with the plough, 

 scufHer, or harrow, according to circumstances. 



6. Papaver Dubium ; Long Smooth-headed Poppy. Cap- 

 sules oblong, smooth ; stem many-flowered, the bristles 

 pressed close ; leaves pinnatifid, gashed. This so closely 

 resembles the preceding species, that it is often mistaken for 

 it. But the capsules of this are long and slender ; the hairs 

 on the peduncle are finer, and pressed upwards close to it ; 

 on the young peduncles they assume a shining silvery white 

 appearance, which is very beautiful ; on the other parts of 

 the plant the hairs spread out, the stalks and leaves are 

 much paler, and the flowers much smaller, and less intensely 

 Dr. Withering also remarks, that a strict attention ID 



red. 



the proportionate 

 3P 



nnd breadth of the capsule and 



