364 PAPAVERACEJE, OR POPPY TRIBE. 



these are covered with numerous and very small ovules or young 

 seeds. The common Poppy has a calyx of only two sepals, 

 which completely inclose the bud before it expands ; and within 

 this is a corolla of four petals. Some of the tribe, however, 

 possess three sepals and six petals ; but the former is the ordi- 

 nary number. If the stem or leaf of a Poppy be broken, a milky 

 juice runs out ; and its whiteness is due to the narcotic substance, 

 opium, which is diffused through it ; and also, perhaps, to a 

 larger proportion of Caoutchouc than most Vegetable juices con- 

 tain. The Crowfoot tribe have a clear juice ; and this difference, 

 connected as it is with a great difference in the properties of the 

 respective groups of plants, is a very characteristic one. But 

 independently of this, the well-marked difference in the con- 

 struction of the ovary, takes away all difficulty in distinguishing 

 these two orders from each other. 



524. The calyx very early falls off, a character by which 

 this order may be distinguished from others of less importance. 

 As the ovary ripens, the exterior becomes very hard and brittle, 

 forming a hollow box termed a capsule, with a brownish-yellow 

 shell. The seeds, when mature, separate from their attachments, 

 and may be shaken loosely in their case. In this condition, the 

 capsules are well known as Poppy-heads, being kept in druggists" 

 shops, on account of the mild narcotic properties, which give the 

 water in which they have been boiled some soothing effects when 

 applied as a fomentation. So hard and firm is the shell of the 

 capsule, that the seeds could not find their way out, unless per- 

 mitted to do so by a particular contrivance. Just beneath the 

 lid, which is firmly bound down to the lower part by the hardened 

 stigmas, there is a set of little valves, which open in the intervals 

 of these (as shown at 2, Fig. 137) ' and through these, the seeds 

 fall out. The structure of the Poppy-capsule is easily understood, 

 by imagining that the several carpels have adhered together, 

 their walls being flattened against each other, just as in the 

 Orange; but that the central portion formed by the union of 

 these has not been developed, so that the partitions are incom- 

 plete, though still projecting more from the sides, than they do 

 in the Heartsease (. 434, Fig. 84). In each case, as the seeds 



