BRASSICACEAE. 145 



Order 11. PAPAVERALES. 



Mostly herbs, with clustered, regular and perfect flowers. Petals, with 

 very rare exceptions, present, separate. Sepals usually separate. Stamens 

 hypogynous. Ovary superior, free from the calyx, compound, composed 

 of two united carpels, or more. 



Sepals 2 (very rarely 3 or 4) ; endosperm fleshy. Fam. 1. PAPAVERACEAE. 



Sepals or calyx-segments 4-8 ; endosperm none. 



Capsule 2-celled by a longitudinal partition, usually 2- 



valved, rarely indehiscent ; sepals and petals 4. Fam. 2. BRASSICACEAE. 



Capsule 1-celled, of 2-6 carpels. 



Style short or wanting ; seeds wingless. Fam. 3. CAPPABIDACEAE. 



Style elongated; seeds winged. Fam. 4. MORINGACEAE. 



Family 1. PAPAVERACEAE B. Juss. 

 POPPY FAMILY. 



Herbs, with milky or colored sap, and alternate leaves or the upper 

 rarely opposite. Stipules none. Flowers perfect, regular. Sepals 2 

 (rarely 3 or 4), caducous. Petals 4-6 or rarely more, imbricated, often 

 wrinkled, deciduous. Stamens hypogynous, distinct; filaments filiform; 

 anthers longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary 1, many-ovuled, mainly 1-celled; 

 style short; ovules anatropous. Fruit a capsule, generally dehiscent by a 

 pore, or by valves, rarely indehiscent. About 23 genera and 115 species, 

 widely distributed, most abundant in the north temperate zone. 



1. ARGEMONE L. Sp. PI. 508. 1753. 



Glaucous herbs, with yellow sap, spiny-toothed leaves and large flowers. 

 Sepals 2 or 3. Petals 4-6. Stamens oo. Placentae 4-6, many-ovuled. Style 

 very short. Stigma dilated, 3-6-radiate. Capsule prickly, oblong, dehiscent 

 at the apex by valves. Seeds numerous, cancellate. [Greek, an eye disease, 

 supposed to be relieved by the plant so called.] A genus of about 10 species, 

 natives of the warmer parts of America. Type species: Argemone mexicana~L. 



1. Argemone mexicana L. Sp. PI. 508. 1753. 



Stem 3-6 dm. high, spiny or sometimes nearly unarmed. Leaves sessile, 

 clasping by a narrowed base, 1-2.5 dm. long, glaucous, runcinate-pinnatifid, 

 spiny-toothed and more or less spiny on the veins; flowers orange or yellow, 

 sessile or subsessile, 2-8 cm. broad; sepals acuminate, bristly-pointed; capsule 

 2.5 cm. long or more; stigma sessile. 



A weed of waste places near dwellings, throughout the archipelago from Great 

 Bahama south to Grand Turk, Salt Cay, Inagua : Bermuda ; southern United 

 States ; West Indies ; continental tropical America ; Old World tropics. DONKEY 

 THISTLE. MEXICAN POPPY. 



Family 2. BRASSICACEAE Lindl. 

 MUSTARD FAMILY. 



Herbs, rarely somewhat woody, with watery acrid sap, alternate 

 leaves, and racemose or corymbose flowers. Sepals 4, deciduous, or rarely 

 persistent, the 2 outer narrow, the inner similar, or concave, or saccate 



