POPPY FAMILY. Papaveraceae. 



There are several kinds of Argemone, natives of th* 

 warmer parts of America, with bitter, yellow juice, spiny- 

 toothed leaves and large, conspicuous flowers, the buds 

 erect; sepals two or three, with odd little horns; petals 

 twice as many as the sepals; stamens numerous; style very 

 short, with a radiate stigma; capsule prickly, oblong, 

 opening at the top, containing numerous seeds. 



The prickly, bluish-green foliage of this 

 Milk Thistle ' decorative and handsome plant is thistle- 

 Argembne hispida like both in form and color. The leafy, 

 White branching stems, two or three feet high, 



Summer are covcre( j w {th dense, white or yellowish 



Southwest . , , 1 1 1 n 



pnckles and bear several lovely flowers, 



over three inches across, with delicately crumpled, white 

 petals and beautiful golden centers, composed of numerous 

 yellow stamens, both stem and leaves having a bluish 

 "bloom." The three prickly green sepals each have a 

 spine-like beak and form a queer-looking, three-horned 

 bud; the pistil has a purplish, cap-shaped stigma, with six 

 lobes, and the prickly ovary becomes a very prickly cap- 

 sule. This grows in dry places and looks very beautiful 

 and striking when we find its fragile flowers waving in the 

 wind against a background of hot desert sand. It varies 

 a good deal in prickliness and in the form both of plant and 

 flower. When there is only one large flower in bloom, 

 surrounded by a circle of prickly buds, it suggests a fairy 

 princess, guarded by a retinue of fierce warriors. The 

 flowers are often quite broad and flat, and then are some- 

 times given the prosaic name of Fried-eggs. 



There are many kinds of Papaver; with milky juice, 

 leaves lobed or cut, nodding flower buds, showy regular 

 flowers, with two or three sepals and four to six petals. 

 The stigmas are united to form a disk with rays and the 

 fruit is a round or oblong capsule, opening near the top. 

 Both the Latin and common name, Poppy, are ancient. 

 Opium is made from P. somniferum of the Mediterranean* 



162 



