PAPA VERACEiE. 129 



Argemone. — Linn. 



Sepals 2. Petals 4-8. Stamens indefinite. Stigmas 4-7, nearly sessile, radiating, 

 concave, free. Capsule obovate, opening at the apex by valves. Seeds globose, pitted, 

 and reticulated. 



A small genus of annual glaucous plants, having sessile leaves, which are 

 repand-sinuate or pinnatifid, with prickly teeth. They abound in an acrid 

 yellow juice. They are principally found in warm climates,, but have become 

 naturalized in the more temperate regions. 



A. mexicana, Linn. — Leaves usually mottled with white ; flowers solitary ; calyx gla- 

 brous, prickly ; petals yellow or white ; capsules prickly. 



Linn., Sp. PL 121 ; Torrey and Gray, Fl. i. 61 ; Botan. Mag. t. 243. 



Common Names. — Prickly Poppy, Yellow Thistle, Thorn Poppy. 



The Thorn Poppy is a native of Mexico, the West Indies, and the southern 

 and western parts of the United States, and has become naturalized in many 

 parts of the world, especially in India. The whole plant abounds with a 

 milky, viscid juice, which, on exposure to the action of the air, becomes of a 

 bright yellow colour, resembling gamboge. This juice has an acrid, un- 

 pleasant taste, but is almost inodorous. 



Medical Uses. — The inspissated juice, according to Long (Hist. Ja- 

 maic, iii. 845), has been found useful as a hydragogue purgative in dropsies 

 and jaundice. In Java, the fresh juice is administered internally in obstinate 

 cutaneous affections, and applied externally to warts, chancres, and ill-con- 

 ditioned ulcers ; and Ainslie (Mat. Ind., ii. 43) states that it is considered by 

 the Hindoos as a valuable remedy in ophthalmia, rubbed on the tarsus, or 

 even dropped into the eye. 



The seeds are employed, in the West Indies, as a substitute for ipecacu- 

 anha, in doses of two drachms infused in a pint of water (Wright, Med. 

 Plants W. Ind.) They also act on the bowels, and are used as a purgative 

 in many parts of South America (Aublet. Hist. Guiane). An oil prepared 

 from them has much reputation in India as an application to tinea capitis, 

 and is also considered beneficial as an external application in cases of head- 

 ache occasioned by exposure to the heat of the sun. It is likewise used as a 

 purgative and deobstruent, and also for the domestic purpose of burning in 

 lamps. It is asserted (Journ. de Pharm., xiv. 73) that this oil is as active 

 as that of the Croton tiglium ; but this is erroneous, as is the statement of 

 Long, that the seeds are a more powerful narcotic than opium. The flowers 

 are said by De Candolle (Essai, iii.) to be administered in Mexico as a 

 hypnotic. 



Chelidonium.— Zi?m. 



Sepals 2. Petals 4. Stamens somewhat numerous. Capsule pod-shaped, narrow, 

 2-valved ; valves dehiscing from base to apex. Seeds numerous, with a glandular cristate 

 raphe. 



A genus of perennial herbs, furnished with a yellowish acrid juice, and 

 containing probably but a single species, which is a native of Europe, but has 

 become extensively naturalized in the United States and elsewhere. 



C. majus, Linn. — Peduncles many-flowered. Pedicels somewhat umbellate. Leaves 

 pinnately divided, glaucous. Segments ovate, cuneately-incised or lobed, terminal one cu- 

 neiform-obovate. Capsules torulose. 



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