1895.] D. Pram — Some additional Papaveracece. 309 



clasp at the base. Some specimens collected by Dr. Stapf in Persia show that occa- 

 sionally the species may be distinctly biennial. 



9. (5.) Papaver somniferum Linn. 



It is of interest, in connection with the theory that the people of China first 

 learned the use of Opium and first obtained the Opium Poppy itself from India, 

 to find from a careful examination of specimens of the Poppy cultivated for Opium 

 in China that are preserved in the magnificent botanical collections of London, 

 Paris and Geneva, that this Poppy belongs to a race quite distinct from the Indian 

 plant, more nearly allied to the form of Pa<paver somniferum that produces Persian 

 Opium than to the form that is cultivated in Hindustan. The specimens referred 

 to come from Yunnan, Szechuen, Hunan and Hupeh. Curiously the only Chinese 

 specimens of Papaver somniferum, cultivated for Opium, that are indistinguishable 

 from the Indian race, which the writer has seen, are in Herb. Calcutta. They were 

 communicated by Fortune in 1853 and are from the Eastern province of Che-kiang, 

 not from Central or South- Western China where the Opium Poppy is chiefly 

 cultivated. 



2. (1*.) ARGEMONE Linn. 

 1. Argemone mexicana Linn. 



Four of the gathei'ings issued by Wallich under this name (Cat. Lith. n. 8126) 

 are really this species, the fifth (8126 B. from Kamaon) is the yellow- flowered Me- 

 conopsis described by Hooker and Thomson as M. robusta. 



3. (2.) MECONOPSIS Viguier. 

 Key to the Indian species {incorporating the new forms. ) 

 * Stems, leaves, sepals and ovaries prickly ; stigmas pyramidal 

 (flowers pale purple, papaveroid, (i.e., petals 4) exception- 

 ally sangninarioid, (i.e., 5-8) : — 

 f Stems not leafy, radical leaves many persisting ; scapes 

 radical 1-fld. or pseudo-cymose from agglutination of 

 scapes, pedicels not or very rarely bracteate, torus 

 distinctly enlarged ; leaves lanceolate (entire or, rare- 

 ly, acutely dentate ; capsules densely aculeate short 

 oblong or obovate, twice as long as style)... ... 1. M. horridula. 



f f Stems leafy, radical leaves few vanishing ; flowers in 



racemose cymes with bracteate pedicels ; torus not 



expanded ; leaves oblong : — ■ 



J Leaves irregularly pinnatifid ; capsules densely 



aculeate, short oblong or obovate, twice as long as 



style ... ... ... ... ... 2. M. aculeata. 



% % Leaves with sinuate or subentire margins ; capsules 

 sparsely aculeate long narrowly obconic, five times 

 as long as style ... ... ... 3. M. sinuata. 



* * Stems, leaves, sepals and ovaries without prickles ; stigmas 

 capitate entire or (in M. primulina) 2-lobcd : — 

 f Stems leafy : — 



X Stems often branching, cymes many-flowered rare- 



