POPPY FAMILY 



(Papaveraceae) 



Herbs (or rarely shrubs) with milky or colored juice, nar- 

 cotic or acrid, and regular, perfect flowers, sepals falling as the 

 petals open and thus often unobserved. 



PRICKLY POPPY. THISTLE-POPPY (Argemdne platyceras, 

 Link & O.). Flowers white, 3 or 4 inches across, with 4 to 6 

 crumpled petals, and a golden centre of very many yellow sta- 

 mens, terminal on a stout, leafy, prickly stem, a foot or two 

 high; leaves bluish green, prickly and thistle-like; blooming in 

 spring and summer on dry hills, in sandy washes, and on the 

 deserts, Central and Southern California eastward to Colorado 

 and south to Mexico. 



The Prickly Poppy is one of the most exquisite of South- 

 western wild flowers, and is often mistaken by superficial ob- 

 servers for the Matilija Poppy, but a glance at the thistle-like 

 leaves and bristling stems relieves all doubt as to the Prickly 

 Poppy's identity. The Mexican name for it is Chicalote. 

 Miss Armstrong records, also, the prosy but rather graphic 

 Fried Eggs, suggested by the fully expanded flowers. 



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