Prickly Poppy. 99 



flowers make it very showy and conspicuous. When the 

 petals fall off*, the pods grow out like horns, and sometimes be- 

 come more than a foot in length, being composed of two valves, 

 and having the seeds arranged along the inside, like peas in 

 their shells. The leaves are rough and prickly, and the whole 

 plant abounds in a yellow juice, which is fetid, poisonous, and 

 said to produce madness. 



This plant is often cultivated as a garden flower, and will 

 grow in almost any soil, though it prefers sand, on account of 

 the great length of its roots, which penetrate this more easily 

 than any tougher soil. It will not bear transplanting, and 

 therefore the seeds must be sown where the plants are intended 

 to remain, and sparingly, since they should be at a considera- 

 ble distance from each other to look well when in flower. 



Another species, G. phazniccum, comes from the south of 

 Europe. Its petals are bright scarlet, with a black spot at the 

 base, and varieties with yellow flowers sometimes occur. 

 There is also a North American species. 



ARGEMONE— PRICKLY POPPY. 



Natural Order, Papaveracese. Linnaean Class, Polyandria ; Order, Mono- 

 gynia. Generic Distinctions :— petals, four to six ; style, almost wanting; 

 stigmas, four or five, radiating, concave ; capsule, obovate, prickly. 



A. Mexkana.— Leaves, repand, sinuated, spiny, blotched with white ; flow- 

 ers, solitary : calyx, smooth ; capsules, prickly, three or four valved 



Plate 16. Fig.2. 



The name Argemone is derived from argema, a cataract of 

 the eye, which was once thought to be curable by the juice of 

 this plant. Like Glaucium, this genus is readily recognised as 

 a near relation of the opium-bearing poppies. The species 

 differ from both those of Glaucium and Papaver (to which lat- 

 ter belong all the true poppies) in the disposition of their stig- 

 mas, which form a kind of cross at the top of the ovary, by 

 which they may be at once ascertained. There are several 

 species, all natives of Mexico, of which the one represented in 



