86 PAPAVEEACE^. 



stomachic in dyspeptic affections. lu over-doses it produced in his own 

 person some cerebral disturbance, which he attributed to the pi-esence of 

 a narcotic principle. And to this narcotic principle he attributed also 

 some of the rehef obtained by use of the plant in painful indigestion. 



PAPAVERACE>E. 



Character of the Order. — Annual or perennial herbs, with a thick colored 

 or milky juice, regular flowers, the parts in twos or fours, numerous hy 

 pogynous stamens, and a 1-celled ovary, with 2 or more parietal placentae 

 Sepals usually 2, rarely 3, falling when the bud opens. Petals 4 to 12. 

 rarely more, spreading, commonly crumpled in the bud, and of short du- 

 ration. Fruit a dry capsule or pod, containing numerous small, oily seeds. 

 Leaves alternate, without stipules ; commonly covered with a bloom. Pe- 

 duncles generally 1-flowered. 



A family of plants represented in the United States by about a dozep 

 genera, comprising altogether a not much greater nvimber of species, ot 

 which but two are of any medicinal importance. Indeed, the entire ordev 

 as distributed over the globe is, with a few notable exceptions — chiefly pa 

 paver and sangviinaria — comj)aratively unimportant, either medicinally Cx 

 economically. They generally possess acrid and more or less narcotic 

 jDroperties. 



SANGUIN AEI A. — Bloodroot. 



Sanguinaria Canadensis Linne. — Bloodroot. 



Descrijjtion. — Calyx : sepals 2, hght green, falling as the bud opens. 

 Corolla : petals 8 to 12 or more, one-half to 1 inch long, oblong-spatulate, 

 spreading, white or slightly rose-tinted, increasing in size for two or thrt u 

 days after the bud opens, and then falling away. Stamens about 24, in 

 several rows, much shorter than the petals, those in the inner rows long- 

 est ; anthers narrow, oj^ening longitudinally. Ovary linear-oblong, 1- 

 celled ; style short, stigma 2-grooved. Capsule oblong, pointed at both 

 ends, tipped with the style, 1-celled, 2-valved. Seeds numerous, roundisl : . 

 smooth, with a prominent ridge along the raphe. 



An herbaceous perennial, having a thick, fleshy, fibrous-rooted rhizome,. 

 1 to 3 inches long, from Avhich are sent up in early sjiring one or more simple, 

 round scapes, each bearing a single flower, which expands in advance of 

 the unfolding of the leaf enclosing it as it emerges from the ground. The 

 leaves, all radical, are, when first unfolded, about 7-lobed, but become, 

 later in the season, broadly reniform, and attain a breadth of 6 to 7 inches. 

 They are borne upon long channelled petioles, are dark shining green above, 

 grayish-green and strongly reticulated beneath. The rhizome is reddish- 

 brown externally, paler within, and pours out, when wounded, an abun- 

 dance of reddish orange-colored juice, whence the common name of the 



