PAPAVERACE^ 7 1 



PAPAVERACEiE 



The Papaveraceee are herbs, mainly of the north 

 temperate regions. The stem contains a white, yellow, 

 or orange milky juice. The leaves are radical or alter- 

 nate. The sepals are generally 2, rarely 3, falling when 

 the flower opens. The 4 petals are crumpled in the bud. 

 The stamens are numerous. The ovary is free, really one- 

 celled, but often divided into more or less closed chambers 

 by many -seeded parietal placentas. The fruit is a 

 capsule, opening by pores or valves. The seeds contain 

 albumen and a minute embryo. Papaveracese belong- 

 mainly to the north temperate zones of both hemi- 

 spheres. 



The British species may be known from those of all 

 other orders by possessing 2 sepals and 4 petals. 



Papaver 



P. Rhoeas. — ^An erect, branched annual, 1-2 feet 

 high, roughened by spreading or adpressed hairs or 

 bristles ; the leaves are pinnatifid and finely denticulate. 

 The large flowers have deep scarlet petals, generally black 

 at the base ; the capsule is nearly globular and smooth, 

 with 8-12 radiating stigmas. The stamens open in the 

 bud, so that some of the pollen inevitably falls on the 

 stigma, but according to Hofl"mann the plant is self- 

 sterile. The pollen is greyish green, in form spherical, 

 or nearly so, freely granular, and 37 "5 /* in diameter. 

 The plant produces no honey, but is visited for the sake 

 of the pollen. The petals, though large, are thin and 

 weak, so that insects naturally alight on the summit of 

 the ovary, and thus dust themselves with pollen which 

 they carry to another flower. They are visited by bees, 

 flies, and beetles. As Grew quaintly said, the petals in 

 the bud " are crambed up within the empalement by 

 hundreds of little wrmJcles or puckers ; as if three or four 

 Cambrick Hankerchiefs were thrust into one's pocket." 

 The flower -heads hang down when in bud, but raise 



