PAPAVERACE^E. (POPPY FAMILY.) 25 



1. PA PAVER, L. POPPY. 



Sepals mostly 2. Petals mostly 4. Stigmas united in a flat 4-20-raycd 

 crown, resting on the summit of the ovary and capsule ; the latter short and 

 turgid, with 4-20 many-seeded placenta projecting like imperfect partitions, 

 opening by as many pores or chinks under the edge of the stigma. Herbs 

 with a white juice ; the flower-buds nodding. (Derivation obscure.) Two 

 species of the Old World are sparingly adventive ; viz. 



1. P. SOMNLFERUM, L. (COMMON POPPY.) Smooth, glaucous ; leaves 

 clasping, wavy, incised and toothed ; pod globose ; corolla mostly white or pur- 

 ple. Near dwellings in some places. (Adv. from Eu.) 



2. P. DUBIUM, L. (SMOOTH-FRUITED CORN-POPPY.) (D Pinnatifid leaves 

 and the long stalks bristly pods club-shaped, smooth ; corolla light scarlet. 

 Cult, grounds, Westchester, Penn. and southward : rare. (Adv. from Eu.) 



2. ARGEMONE, L. PRICKLY POPPY. 



Sepals 2 or 3. Petals 4-6. Style almost none : stigmas 3-6, radiate. Pod 

 oblong, prickly, opening by 3-6 valves at the top Seeds crested. Herbs, 

 with prickly bristles and yellow juice. Leaves sessile, sinuate-lobed, and with 

 prickly teeth, blotched with white. Flower-buds erect, short-peduncled. (Name 

 from apyepa, a disease of the eye, for which the juice was a supposed remedy.) 



1. A. MEXIC\NA, L. (MEXICAN PRICKLY POPPY.) (i) (g) Flowers sol- 

 itary (pale yellow or white); calyx prickly. Waste places; not common. 

 July -Oct. (Adv. from trop. Amer.) 



3. STYL.OPHORUM, Nutt. CELANDINE POPPY. 



Sepals 2, hairy. Petals 4. Style distinct, columnar: stigma 3-4-lobed. 

 Pod ovoid, bristly, 3-4-valved to the base. Seeds conspicuously crested. 

 Perennial herb, with pinnatifid or pinnately divided leaves like Celandine, the 

 uppermost in pairs, subtending one or more slender 1 -flowered peduncles ; the 

 buds and pods nodding. Juice yellow. Corolla yellow. (Name from oruXos, 

 a style, and (/>epo>, to bear ; indicating one of its characters.) 



1. S. dLipliylluni, Nutt. (Meconopsis diphylla, DC.) Woods, W. 

 Pcnn. to Wisconsin and Kentucky. May. Divisions of the leaves 5-7, sinu- 

 ate-lobed. Flower 2' broad. 



4. CHEL-IDONIUM, L. CELANDINE. 



Sepals 2. Petals 4. Stamens 16-24. -Style nearly none: stigma 2-lobcd. 

 Pod linear, slender, smooth, 2-valved, the valves opening from the bottom up- 

 wards. Seeds crested. Perennial herbs, with brittle stems, saffron-colored acrid 

 juice, pinnately divided or 2-pinnatifkl and toothed or cut leaves, and small yel- 

 low flowers. (Name from ^eXiSwv, the Swallow, because, according to Dios- 

 corides, it begins to flower at the time the swallows appear.) 



1. C. MAJUS, L. (CELANDINE.) Flowers several, in umbel-like clusters. 

 Waste grounds near dwellings. May- Aug. (Adv. from Eu.) 



