POPPY FAMILY. Papaveraceas. 



POPPY FAMILY. Papaveraceoe. 



Herbs with a milky or yellow sap, and regular or ir- 

 regular perfect flowers with 4-12 petals, generally two 

 early-falling sepals, and many stamens. The irregular 

 flowers spurred at the base of the petals. Fertilized 

 mostly by bees. Fruit a dr^^ capsule usually one-celled. 

 Not honey-bearing flowers. 



Bloodroot ^ most beautiful but fragile flower of 



Sanguinaria early spring, H inches broad, with gen- 

 Canadensis erally 8 (rarely 12) brilliant wliite petals 



^ four of which alternating with the others 



April-May ° . . n 



are a trifle narrow, and impart a four- 

 sided aspect to the full-blown blossom. The petals ex- 

 pand flatly in the morning, and become erect toward late 

 afternoon, and close by evening. The two sepals fall 

 when the flower opens. The golden orange anthers 

 mature after the two-lobed stigma, which is shrivelled 

 when the pollen is ripe ; the outer stamens are somewhat 

 shorter than the inner ones in the advanced flower, and 

 the stigma is prominent in the new flower, so cross-fer- 

 tilization is practically assured. The blossom attracts 

 insects which gather pollen but find no honey, and its 

 chief visitors are honeybees, bumblebees, the smaller 

 bees of the genus Halictus, and the beelike flies 

 {Bombylius). As the plant breaks through the ground 

 in early April, the leaf is curled into a cylinder which 

 encloses the budding flower ; afterward the blossom 

 pushes upward beyond the leaf. Eventually the light 

 blue-olive green leaf, generally with seven irregular shal- 

 low lobes, is 6-10 inches broad. The dull orange-colored 

 sap is acrid, astringent, and medicinal in quality. Fruit- 

 capsule elliptical-oblong with many light yellow-brown 

 seeds. Plant finally about 10 inches high. Common 

 everywhere on the borders of rich woods shaded road- 

 sides, and copses. 



Celandine A western woodland species with j^ellow 



poppy juice, deeply lobed light green leaves slen- 



dinhyllum der-stemmed and smooth, and with small 



Golden yellow four-petaled poppylike golden yellow 

 April-May flowers one inch broad, solitary, or 2-3 in 

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