70 THE POPPY TAMLLT. 



The genus, besides the European species, comprises but one North Ame- 

 rican one. 



1. Yellowr Nuphar. Nupharlutea, Sm. 



(Eng. Bot. t. 159. Yelloiv Waterlily.) 

 Leaves very nearly as in the white Waterlily. Flowers yellow, raised two 

 or three inches above the water, much less expanded and faintly scented, the 

 concave sepals assuming a more globular form. Petals and stamens very 

 numerous, but scarcely more than half the length of the sepals. Fruit globu- 

 lar, crowned by the stigmatic disk, indehiscent or bursting uTegularly. 



FuUy as common, and in many places more so, than the lohite Waterlily, 

 with the same geographical range ; certainly more general in Britain. Fl. 

 all summer. It varies much in size, and in the number of the stigmatic 

 rays. A very small form, with a more indented stigmatic disk, found in the 

 lakes of the north of Scotland, has been distinguished as a species under the 

 names of N. pumila and N. minima (Eng. Bot. t. 2292). 



IV. THE POPPY FAMILY. PAPAVEEACE^. 



Herbs, with alternate or radical leaves, usually much divided, 

 and no stipules. Flowers regular. Sepals 2, rarely 3, falling 

 off as the flower expands. Petals (in the European genera 4) 

 crumpled in the hud. Stamens numerous, distinct. Ovary 

 really 1-celled, with several many-seeded parietal placentae ; but 

 these placentae often project so far into the cavity, as almost, 

 or even quite, to meet in the centre, dividing the ovary into as 

 many imperfect cells. Eruit capsular, opening in pores or 

 valves. Seeds albuminous, with a small embryo. 



The Poppy family belongs almost exclusively to the nortli temperate zone, 

 in both the old and new world, a single species, the Mexican Argemone or 

 Frickly Poppy, having spread as a weed aU over the tropics. The combi- 

 nation of 2 sepals and 4 petals easily distinguish the British genera from 

 all other Polyandrous plants. 



Ovary and fruit globular or oblong. 



Stigmas radiating on a sessile flat disk 1. Poppt. 



Stigmas supported on a short but distinct style .2. Mecokopsis. 



Ovary and fruit linear. 



Seeds crested. Flowers small, yellow 3. Celak-dine. 



Seeds not crested. 

 Seacoast plant, with thiekish leaves and large yellow flowers . . 5. Glaucium. 

 Cornfield weed, with rather large violet flowers i. Ecemeeia. 



The Californian JSschscholtzias, now so common in our gardens, belong to 

 this family. Platystemon, a curious annual from the same country, also not 

 unfrequently cidtivated, is intermediate, as it were, between the Poppy and 

 the Ranunculus families. 



I. POPPY. PAPAVEE. 



Capsule globular, ovoid or sUghtly oblong, crowned by a circular disk. 



