28o BOTANY AND PHARMACOGNOSY. 



cinchonas of Java. Coto bark which is used in medicine, is ob- 

 tained from an unknown tree in Northern Bolivia belonging to 

 this family. The bark contains a volatile oil having a pungent 

 taste, and a volatile alkaloid. 



Fatty oils are obtained from Ravensara aromatica of Mada- 

 gascar, Litsea glauca of Japan and other species of Litsea found 

 growing in Cochin China and India. A red sap with a very fetid 

 odor is obtained from Ocotea fastens of tropical and sub-tropical 

 America, and the stink- wood of South Africa (O. bullata). 



XIII. ORDER RHCEADALES OR PAPAVERALES. 



These are mostly herbaceous, seldom woody, plants. The 

 flowers are perfect and the fruit capsular. This order includes 

 two families of importance medicinally. 



a. PAPAVERACE^ OR POPPY FAMILY.— These are 

 herbs with a milky or colored latex. 



Papaver somniferum or opium poppy is an annual herb i to 2 

 M. high. The stem is sparingly branched, with alternate, deeply 

 lobed, pubescent, clasping (by a cordate base), dull green leaves 

 (Fig. 147, A). The flowers in the variety album, from which 

 opium is obtained, are white or silver-gray, and in many cultivated 

 varieties are large and extremely showy. The two sepals drop 

 away with the expansion of the corolla ; the ovary is smooth, more 

 or less globular and subtends the radiate stigma; the fruit is a 

 capsule (Fig. 91), dehiscing by means of terminal pores, and 

 contains a large number of extremely small white seeds, the latter 

 being known as maw-seed and which on expression yield a fixed 

 oil known as poppy-oil. (For opium see p. 658.) 



Other allied members of the Papaveracese possess narcotic 

 properties, but the alkaloid morphine has not been isolated from 

 any of them, as the California poppy {Eschscholtzia californica) 

 (Fig. 147, B) ; the Mexican poppy {Argemone mexicana) ; Hy- 

 pecoiim procumhens, and Fumarm plicata both of Southern Eu- 

 rope. These latter plants probably contain also the alkaloid proto- 

 pine which is apparently identical with fumarine. 



Sanguinaria canadensis or bloodroot, the rhizome of which is 

 official (p. 508), is a small, herbaceous, perennial herb with a red 



