82 PAPAYERACE.E. 



Order VIII. PAPAVERACEi:. 



By a. Gkay ; the genus Arctoinecon by B. L. Robinson. 



Mostly colored- juiced herbs, with mostly alternate leaves, no stipules, and 

 narcotic or acid qualities; flowers hermaphrodite, hypogynous, polyandrous, 

 dimerous or sometimes trimerous i. e. sepals 2, rarely 3, and caducous, petals 

 double to quadruple (or even sextuple) that number and commonly very decidu- 

 ous ; the ranks imbricated in the bud ; pistil of 2 to many carpels combined to 

 form a one-celled ovary with parietal placenta?. Filaments filiform, or rarely 

 dilated, distinct : anthers innate. Ovules anatropous, numerous. Fruit capsular. 

 Seeds with small or minute embryo at base of fleshy and oily albumen. — Several 

 genera have more or less colorless juice. Dendromecon is shrubby. Platystemon 

 has carpels in flower partly and in fruit becoming wholly distinct Glaucium 

 has a falsely 2-celled ovary, and the placentag in Poppy, &c., may meet in the 

 axis. Eschscholtzia, besides its calyptrate calyx, has a cupulate-dilated seem- 

 in'dy perigynous disk. Platystemon and yet more Canbya and Arctomecon retain 

 their petals until fruiting. Platystigma and Canbya may have very few stamens. 

 Bucconia is apetalous. And the leaves are usually opposite or verticillate and 

 entire in the first tribe. So, although one of the most distinct of orders, it teems 

 with exceptions. 



Tribe I. PLATYSTEMONE.E. Leaves mainly opposite or whorled and entire. 

 Flowers usually 3-merous, i. e. sepals 3 and obovate petals 6 in two series. Ovary 

 mostly lobed or angled : stigmas distinct, one terminating each carpel, alternate 

 with the placentae, which never separate from the valves. No dilated torus under 

 the flower. Flower-buds usually drooping on the peduncle : anthesis for more 

 than one day. Juice watery or yellowish. 



1. PLATYSTEMON. Stamens numerous: filaments petsiloid, oliovate or spatulate. 

 Stigmas subulate-filiform. Carpels 9 to 18, each several-ovukd, at first all united in a ciri-le 

 into a deeply plurisulcate compound ovary by as many parietal placenta:;, in fruit separating 

 and closing into as many torose narrow follicles, which when mature are disposed to break, 

 up transversely into a few one-seeded joints ! Petals tardily deciduous ! 



2. PLATYSTIGMA. Flowers occasionally 2-merous, i. e. with 2 sepals and 4 petals. 

 Stamens 6 to 12, rarely 4 : filaments from lanceolate-sul)ulate to filiform. Carpels 3, rarely 

 4, wholly combined into a somewhat .3-lol)ed or angled or nearly terete ovary, having as 

 many pluriovulate strictly parietal placentie ; in fruit a thin-waUed completely 3-valved 

 capsule, dehiscent through the placenta;. Stigmas ovate to subulate. Petals deciduous. 



Tribe II. PAPAVERE.E. Leaves alternate or mainly so. Flowers rarely 3-merous. 

 Ovary of 2 to 20 completely combined carpels; even the stigmas more or less 

 confluent or else radiate from a common centre, never more numerous than the 

 placenta? : these when the capsule dehisces persisting as a frame alternate with 

 and freed from the valves, while held in place by attachment to receptacle below 

 and combined stigmas above. 



* Petals 4 or 6, usually scarious-marcoscont and ])orsistcnt till t lie fruit is grown! appar- 

 ently not crumpled in the bud : tliis drooping l)cf<)re anthesis: capsule ovoid, strictly 

 one-celled, 3-6-valved from above ; valves alternating with as many nerviform placentie. 



3 CANBYA. Sepals 3. Petals G, obovate, after anthesis dosing over the capsule. Stamens 

 6 or ;t : filaments shorter than the oblong linear anthers. Ovary and membranaceous cap- 



