PAPAVERACEAE. 175 



Leaves not entire. 



Receptacle hollowed or cup-like; flowers erect in bud; capsule 2-valved; leaves 



ternately dissected; annual or perennial herbs 4. Eschscholtzia. 



Receptacle not excavated; leaves pinnately cleft, lobed or divided; annuals. 



Flowers erect in bud; capsule 4 to 6-valved at summit; prickly herbs 



5. Argemone. 



Flowers nodding in bud; capsule opening by holes just below summit; unarmed 



herbs 6. Papaver. 



1. PLATYSTEMON Benth. 



Low annual with mainly opposite entire leaves. Sepals 3. Petals 6, in two 

 series, tardily deciduous, withering and closing about the forming fruit. Sta- 

 mens numerous; filaments petal-like and obovate or spatulate. Carpels 6 to 17 

 or L'i>. each several-ovuled, connivent or coherent in a circle, becoming torulose, 

 at maturity separating, and breaking transversely into indehiscent 1-seeded 

 joints; stigmas subulate-filiform. Anthesis lasting for more than one day. 

 (Greek platus, broad, and stemon, a stamen.) 



1. P. californicus Benth. Cream-cups. Conspicuously pilose; branched 

 from the base, widely spreading and more or less decumbent or nearly acau- 

 lescent, 3 to 6 in. high; peduncles more or less scape-like, 5 in. long; petals 

 cream-yellow; stamens about 25. 



Foothills, plains and valleys; common almost throughout California. Apr. 

 Petals sometimes deeper colored at apex with the deeper color repeated as a 

 spot at base. 



2. PLATYSTIGMA Benth. 



Annual herbs with the leaves, sepals and petals as in Platystemon, the flowers 

 rarely with 2 sepals and 4 petals. Petals deciduous. Stamens 6 to 12. Car- 

 pels 3, combined into a single 1-celled ovary, which is 3-lobed or nearly terete. 

 Placentae as many as the carpels, parietal, many-ovuled. Stigmas ovate to 

 subulate. Capsule completely 3-valved, dehiscent through the placentae. (Greek 

 platus, broad, and stigma, a stigma.) 



Not acaulescent; peduncles glabrous; petals white; ovary and capsule linear, twisted.... 



1. P. calif ornicum. 



Acaulescent or nearly so; scapes hairy; petals light yellow; ovary and capsule narrowly 



obovoid, 3-lobed 2. P. lineare. 



1. P. calif ornicum (Torr. & Frem.) B. & H. Very slender, erect, 4 to 7 

 in. high, paniculately or dichotomously branched above or even from the base; 

 glabrous throughout; radical and lower leaves elliptic to obovate-spatulate, 

 5 to 11 lines long, often contracted into a petiole, the upper cauline oblanceolate 

 to linear; peduncles 2 to 3 in. long, erect in anthesis, in fruit defiexed almost 

 horizontally but the capsule vertical or nearly so; sepals often reddish; petals 

 white, elliptic to oblong, often narrowed to a short claw, 3 to 5 lines long; 

 stamens b' to 12, rarely 4, unequal, in two series, the outer shorter; filaments 

 filiform, slightly dilated upwards; capsule y.> to 1 (rarely l 1 /-*) in. long. 



Sonoma Co. to San Francisco and southward to Southern California. Mar.- 

 Apr. 



2. P. lineare Benth. Acaulescent or nearly so; scapes commonly 4 to 8 

 in. high, hispid with spreading hairs; leaves linear, 1 to 2 in. long, sessile; 

 sepals brownish; petals light yellow, cuneate-orbicular or obovate, 4 to !» lines 

 long; stamens numerous, filaments conspicuously dilated; body of capsule 5 to 7 

 lines long. 



Sandy soil, near the coast: San Francisco southward to Monterey Co. ami 

 northward to Oregon. Mar. -May. Outer 3 petals often egg-yellow or with a 

 similar central splotch. 



