CLASSIFICATION OF AXGIOSPERMS. 



547 



M. high. The stem is sparingly branched, witli alternate, deeply 

 lobed, pubescent, clasping (by a cordate base), dull green leaves 

 (Fig. 305, A). The flowers in the variety album, from which 

 opium is obtained, are white or silver-gray, and in many cultivated 

 varieties are large and extremely showy. The two sepals drop 

 away with the expansion of the corolla ; the ovary is smooth, more 

 or less globular and subtends the radiate stigma; the fruit is a 



Fig. 305. A, Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum); B, California poppy (Eschs'-hoit- 

 zia calif ornica) showing flower (a), and capsules (b, c), one of which (c) is dehiscent. — After 

 Schimper. 



capsule (Fig. 2t^^), dehiscing by means of terminal pores, and 

 contains a large number of extremely small white seeds, known as 

 MAW-SEED, and which yield a fixed oil known as poppy-oil. The 

 latex of this plant (Figs. 306, 307) yields opium. 



Other allied members of the Papaveraceie possess narcotic 

 properties, but the alkaloid morphine has not been isolated from 

 any of them, as the California poppy {Eschscholtzia calif oniica) 

 (Fig. 305, B) ; the Mexican poppy {Argcuwuc uicxicana') ; //y- 

 pecoum procumhens, and Fumaria plicata, both of Southern 



