Poppy Family 161 



5. ESCHSCHOL.TZIA Cham. CALIFORNIA POPPY. 



Smooth glaucous annual or perennial herbs, with 

 colorless bitter juice, finely dissected leaves and bright 

 orange or yellow flowers. Sepals coherent into a narrow 

 pointed hood, deciduous at anthesis from a dilated torus. 

 Petals 4, borne on the torus. Stamens numerous, with 

 short filaments and linear anthers. Ovary linear, with 

 2 nerve-like -placentae ; styles short ; stigmas divided 

 into 4-6 linear unequally divergent lobes. Capsule 

 elongated, 10-nerved, 1-celled, dehiscent by 2 valves 

 separating from placental ribs. Seeds globose, reticulate 

 .or rough tuberculate. 



1. E. Californica Cham. Root perennial, thick and branch- 

 ing ; stems branching decumbent or ascending, leafy ; herbage 

 glabrous ; calyx about 2 cm. long, conical ; petals flabelliform , 

 4 cm. long or less, usually orange, sometimes paler; rim of torus 

 expanded, 2-4 mm. wide; seeds reticulated. 



Not common within our limits. Sierra Madre; San Fernando Mountains 

 near Chats worth Park. March-May. 



2. E. peninsularis Greene. Annual, smooth and rather glau- 

 cous; scapose or at length freely branching, 10-25 cm. high; 

 petals golden yellow or orange, flabelliform or broadly cuneate, 

 4 cm. long or less; rim of torus expanded, 2-4 mm. broad ; seeds 

 reticulated. 



Common in sandy soil throughout our range in the valleys. March-May. 



3. E. hypecoides Benth. Scabrous or hirsute, pubescent 

 below, glabrous above, glaucescent ; branches many and rather 

 slender from an annual root, decumbent at base, about 30 cm. 

 high or less, leafy ; leaf segments few, linear-cuneiform ; calyx 

 oblong-conic, 1 cm. long; petals 2 cm. long or less, orange; 

 torus short, tubular or turbinate, without expanded rim to the 

 outer margin, the inner erect, hyaline; seeds faintly reticulated. 



Santa Monica Mountains, not common. 



6. MECONOPSIS Vigner. 



Ours slender erect leafy annuals, with orange-colored 

 juice and scarlet or orange-red flowers. Sepals 2. 



