86 PAPAVERACE^ 



Btomo,chic in dyspeptic aflfectionn. In over-doses it produced in his own 

 person some corebnil disturbance, which he atti'ibuted to the presence of 

 a narcotic princi2:)le. And to this narcotic principle lie attributed also 

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



PAPAVERACEiE. 



Character of the Order. — Annual oi ijerennial herbs, with a thi<'k colored 

 or milky juice; regular flowers, the parts in twos or fours, luimerous hy- 

 pogynous stamens, n,iid a 1-celled ovary, with 2 or more jiarietal placenttc. 

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

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

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

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

 duncles geiierallv 1-flcwcred. 



A fami'.y of plants represented in the United States by about a dozen 

 genera, comprising altogether a not much greater number of species, of 

 ■which but t,wo are of any medicinal importance. Indeed, the entire order 

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

 paver and sanguinaria — coniparatively unimportant, either medicinally or 

 e(!onomically. They generally possess acrid and more or less narcotic 

 properties. 



SANGUIK ARI A. — BLOonnooT. 



Sanguinaria Canadensis Linne. — Bloodroot. 



Descriplion. — Calyx : sepala 2, light green, falling as the bud opens. 

 Corolla : petals 8 to 1.2 or more, one-half to 1 inch long, oblong-spatulate, 

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

 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 naiTow, opening 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, roundish, 

 smooth, with a prominent ridge along the raphe. 



An herbaceous pei'ennial, having a thick, fleshy, fibrous-rooted rhizome, 

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

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

 the unfolding of the leaf enc^losing it as it emerges from the ground. The 

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

 later in the seasoii, broadly reniforra, and attain a breadth of (> 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 i-eddish oraug'^-colored juice, whence the common name of the 



