Papaveracec—Platystemon. 37 
1. PLATYSTEMON. 
A small genus of annual herbs with narrow entire leaves. 
Flowers on lone peduncles, yellow. Sepals 3. Petals 6. 
Stamens numerous, with dilated flaments. Carpels numerous, 
many-seeded, at first partially united, but free when mature. 
The name is from crAatvs, broad, and otjpa,a stamen. Two 
species have been described; they are both dwarf hardy plants 
of straggling habit and no great merit. 
1. P. Califériicus.—-Leaves and capsules hairy. Native of 
California, flowering in August. 
2. P. leiocérpus.—-Capsules smooth, flowers yellowish white. 
A native of Siberia. 
2, PAPAVER. 
Showy annual and perennial herbs with lobed or dissected 
leaves and milky juice. Flowers on long peduncles, nodding 
when in bud. Sepals usually 2. Petals 4 or more. Stamens 
numerous. Ovary l-celled; style short or obsolete; stigma 
discoid, with radiating lobes opposite the placentas, which pro- 
ject in towards the centre of the ovary. Capsule opening by 
pores ; seeds numerous, small, pitted. About a dozen species 
are known, from Europe, North Africa, and Asia, one extend- 
ing to South Africa, and one to Australia. Though the genus 
is poor in species, these are very prolific in varieties. The 
etymology of the word is obscure. 
Perennial Species. 
1. P. orientale.—A handsome plant, 3 or 4 feet high. Stems 
supporting one large scarlet or orange-scarlet flower with a 
dark crimson spot at the base of the petals. P. bractedtum 
(fig. 28), syn. P. pulchérrimum, is a variety in which the 
sepals are foliaceous and persistent, and the flowers much 
larger. A native of Western and Central Asia. 
2. P. alpynum.—A dwarf plant, less than a foot high, 
native of the mountains of Europe from the Alps to Lapland. 
Leaves pinnate, glaucous. Flower-stems leafless, hispid, one- 
flowered. Flowers large and showy, bright orange-yellow or 
white. P. nucdicaile is an allied Arctic species or variety, 
and P. Pyrendicum is a handsome dwarf variety with trailing 
leaves and orange-coloured flowers. 
Annual Species. 
3. P. somniferwm. Opium Poppy.—A tall glaucous glabrous 
