Nuphar. | Ill, NYMPHHACER. 17 
water, much less expanded and faintly scented, the concave sepals assuming 
a more globular form. Petals and stamens very numerous, but scarcely 
more than half the length of the sepals. Fruit globular, crowned by the 
stigmatic disk, indehiscent or bursting irregularly. 
Fully as common, and in many places more so, than Nymphea alba, with 
the same geographica] range; certainly more general in Britain. Fl. ail 
summer. It varies much in size, and in the number of the stigmatic rays. 
A very small form, with few rays in the stigmatic disk, found in some lakes — 
of Scotland, has been distinguished under the names of VV. pumilum and NV. 
minimum. 
IV. PAPAVERACEA, THE POPPY FAMILY. 
Herbs, with milky juice, alternate or radical leaves, usually 
much divided, and no stipules. Flowers regular. Sepals 2, 
rarely 3, falling off as the flower expands. Petals (in the 
European genera 4) crumpled in the bud. Stamens numerous, 
distinct. Ovary really l-celled, with several many-seeded 
parietal placentz ; but these placentz often project so far into 
the cavity, as sometimes to meet in the centre, dividing the 
ovary into as many imperfect cells. Fruit capsular, opening by 
pores or valves. Seeds albuminous, with a small embryo. 
Papaveracee belong almost exclusively to the north temperate zone, in 
both the old and new world, a single species, the Mexican Argemone or 
Prickly Poppy, having spread as a weed all over the tropics. The combi- 
nation of 2 sepals and 4 petals easily distinguishes the British genera from 
all other Polyandrous plants. 
Ovary and fruit globular or oblong. 
Stigmas radiating on a sessile flat disk bet, . 1 PApaver. 
Stigmas supported on a short but distinct style . z : - 2, MECONOPSIS. 
Ovary and fruit linear. 
Seeds crested. Flowers small, yellow é ; ‘ ‘ . 3. CHELIDONIUM, 
Seeds not crested. 
Seacoast plant, with thickish leaves and large yellow flowers 5. GuAUcIUM. 
Cornfield weed, with rather large violet flowers . ‘ 4, R@MERIA, 
The Californian Eschscholtzias, now so common in our gardens, belong 
to this family. Platystemon, a curious annual from the same country, also 
not unfrequently cultivated, is intermediate, as it wer e; between Papaveracee 
and Ranunculaceae. 
I. PAPAVER. POPPY. 
Capsule globular ovoid or slightly oblong, crowned by a circular disk, 
upon which the stigmas radiate from the centre, internally divided nearly 
to the centre into as many incomplete cells as there are stigmas, and open- 
ing in as many pores, immediately under the disk. Flowers rather large, 
red, white, or purplish in the British species, or pale»yellow in some exotic 
ones. 
A small genus, extending over Europe, temperate Asia, South Africa, 
and Australia, and introduced among weeds of cultivation into other parts 
of the world. 
Cc 
