174 The Natural System of Botany. 



firmly united to the lower part, that it will not open, and 

 remedy this, there are a number of little valves which on ° 

 between the stigmas, and through these the seeds drop oT 

 The structure of the Poppy capsule maybe understood by con 

 ceiving that the several carpels have adhered together, their wall" 

 being flattened against each other, but that the union of these not 

 being complete, the partitions do not reach the centre. Tbea 

 partitions, to which the seeds are attached, are called v la C en 

 tas, and in this case they are parietal— that is, they spring from 

 the wall of the seed vessel, and not from its centre. 



The essential characters of this Order are, then— Stamens 

 very numerous ; Carpels united into one central ovary, with a 

 single cavity ; Juice, milky. It, now, the reader has procured 

 (as he should always do in studying the Natural Orders ) a 

 flowering plant of the Ranunculus, and another of the Poppy 

 and has examined all the parts as we have described them,' 

 and compared the characteristics of the two together, he will 

 have fixed the difference in his mind, and learned the nature 

 of two important tribes of plants, so that he will never be in 

 danger of mistaking the one for the other. 



There are several plants belonging to this Order, which dif- 

 fer considerably from the true Poppy, in the formation of their 

 seed vessels, and to save mistakes, it is well to notice one or 

 two of these. In No. 4, PI. 16, of this work, is the portrait of 

 a member of this Tribe, called the Horned Poppy. In this 

 the fruit differs from that of the true Poppy, in being very long 

 and slender, instead of short and globose. The reason of this 

 is, that in the true Poppy there are a greater number of car- 

 pels grown together, being just as many as there are stigmas, 

 wliile in the Horned Poppy there are only two carpels. On 

 opening the fruit, however, it will be found to contain, like the 

 other, only a single cavity, with parietal placentae. 



There is a small plant generally known as Celandine, which 

 is not uncommon in this country, growing by road sides, and 

 under fences, whose yellow flowers are in umbels, and whose 

 fruit is a long pod very like that of the Horned Poppy. Its 

 ju.ee is yellow, and is frequently used by school boys, with no 

 great success, to cure warts. 



Another curious American member of this Order, is the 



