20 PAPAVERACE^. [Papaver. 



I. Papaver, Linn. Poppy. 



" Sepals 2 rarely 3. Petals 4 rarely 6. Stig7na sessile, radi- 

 ated. Capsules with the seeds on parietal placentas projecting 

 towards the centre of the single cell, and escaping by pores 

 beneath the permanent rayed sessile stigma." — Br. Fl. 



§ Capsules hristly. 



1. P. Argemone, L. Long Prickly -headed Poppy. " Capsule 

 clavate hispid with erect bristles, filaments dUated upwards, stem 

 leafy, leaves bipinnatifid." — Br. M. p. 16. £. J5. t. 643. Fl. 

 Dan. r. t. 867, {optima). 



Very frequent in cultivated and waste ground, amongst corn, clover, &c., and 

 on dry banks, in light sandy or gravelly soil. Fl. May — July. 0. 



H. Med. — Abundant in sandy fields about Newchuroh. Cornfields by the 

 footway from Sandown to Shanklin, also about Cliff farm, Lee faim, and else- 

 where in that vicinity. Between Lake and Sandown, also in cornfields between 

 Yaverland and the sea, plentifully. Abundantly in cornfields near Wellow, 

 Newchurch. A variety with the petals deeply laciniated, in some specimens so 

 much so as almost to appear fringed, I found in a field nearly opposite Cliff farm 

 in some plenty, mixed with the common state of the plant. Fields between 

 Lake and the sea, Mr. Snooke. . 



W. Med.— By Calbourne New Barn. 



Root annual, whitish, long and tapering, simple or a little branched, rigid. Stem 

 in very small plants solitary and erect, in large and luxuriant ones numerous, pro- 

 cumbent and ascending below, from 5 or 6 inches to a foot or rather more in height, 

 round, solid, rigid, leafy, slightly milky, distantly and alternately branched, rough 

 with long, scattered, erect, subappressed or (particularly at the base of the stems) 

 partly spreading white hairs. Leaves very similar to those of the next species, 

 more or less hirsute with long, white, stiffish, simple hairs, deeply bi- or tripinnatifid, 

 the radical ones on rather long grooved petioles, those of the stem becoming by 

 degrees quite sessile, the primary segments opposite or alternate, in all usually re- 

 mote, especially the basal pair, vfhieh is mostly very distant, larger than the rest 

 and often tripinnatifid, frequently absent on the lower stem- and root-leaves ; se- 

 condary or ultimate segments various in size and shape, more or less lanceolate, 

 ovate or linear, entire or (often trifidly) cleft or toothed, each segment tipped with 

 a short straight bristle, their margins thickened and deflexed. Flowers solitary, 

 on long, terminal and axillary, flexuose peduncles covered with close-pressed hairs, 

 drooping in the bud, afterwards erect, very fugacious, smaller than any of the fol- 

 lowing, and expanding indifferently at all hours of the day. Bracts none. Calyx 

 more or less bristly with stiff hairs curved upwards and springing from tubercles. 

 Petals light brilliant scarlet, with a large obovate shining spot of purplish black 

 at their base, about 1 inch or Ij inch long, cuneate, obovate, rumpled, with a sa- 

 tiny gloss, their summits somewhat notched, from their more attenuated form not 

 contiguous or overlapping each other, but spreading widely asunder. Stamens erect, 

 the inner ones about as long asthegermen ; filaments dark purple, shining, gradu- 

 ally dilated upwards to an oblong shape, and bearing on their mucronate tips the 

 pale whitish blue compressed nearly orbicular anthers. Germen clavato-obconic, his- 

 pid with long erect or appressed slightly curved bristles. Stigma with from 3—6 

 violet-blue rays. Capsules pale greenish ash-colour, about J oif an inch long, club- 

 shaped, with as many whitish slender ribs* as there are rays on the stigma, the 



* These ribs upon the capsule mark the places of the in.sertion of the interior 

 placentae to which the seeds are aflSxed, and of which the rays of the stigma are 

 but the superior extremities. 



