110 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



temperate or subtropical regions of Europe, Asia, Africa, and 

 North America. One inhabits South Africa, and another Tropical 

 Australia. 



r 



Fig. 119. 

 Flower. 



Papaver Bhoeas. 



1 — we*3S 



Fig. 120. 

 Long-, sect, of flower. 



Close to Papaver come the nearly allied genera Meconopsis and 



Argemone? The former has a binary flower, with the perianth and 



D „, androceum of a Poppy. But the number of placen- 



tas is variable, from indefinite down to four or five ; 



and they are rib-like or slightly prominent. The 



style is distinct, and ends in a more or less depressed 



club, with deflexed radiating lobes superposed to 



the placenta. The fruit is a narrow elongated 



capsule, surmounted by the style persisting above 



the placentas, which are left bare when the walls 



of the ovary separate in triangular valves from 



above downwards. The seeds are scrobiculate, 



naked, or with an arillary outgrowth from the raphe. 



Meconopsis consists of annual or perennial herbs, 



with a yellow latex, and entire or incised alternate 



leaves. The flowers are, as in Papaver, borne on long drooping 



peduncles. The flowers 3 are sometimes solitary terminal, sometimes 



Fig. 12"?. 

 Seed (LS). 



Fig., 123. 

 Long. sect, of seed. 



Vig., Papav., 35, fig. 5-7. — Deless., Ic. Sel>, 

 ii. t. 7. — Reichb., Icon., t. 352, 742-74fi. — 

 Eikan, Tent. Monogr. Gen. Pip. (1S39).— 

 Hook. f. & Thoms., Fl. Ind., i. 249. — Boiss., 

 Fl. Or., i. 105. — Harv. & So>.D., F'. Cap., i. 

 15.— Oliv., Fl. Prop. Afr., i. 53.— A. Okay, 

 Man., 25. — Eichl., in Mart. Ft. Bras., Papav., 

 315. — Benth., Fl. Austral, i. 63. — Gren. 

 & Gode,., Fl. de Fr., i. 57. — Walp., Pep., i. 

 110; ii. 750; Ann., i. 23; ii. 26; iv. 172; vii. 

 83. 



1 Vig., Papav., 20, 48, fig. 3.— DC, Si/st., ii. 

 86; Prodr., i. 117; in Mem. Soc. Gen., i. t, 2, 

 fig. 11. — Beknh., in Linncea, viii. 162. — Endi. 

 Gen., n. iS22.— B. H., Gen., 52, n. 7.— 

 Cerastites Gray, Brit. PL, ii. 704 (ex Endi..). 



2 Perhaps it would be as well to suppress the 

 genus Meconopsis, 



3 Yellow, red, or blue, with a more or less 

 poisonous smell. 



