PAPAVERACEAE 237 



Plate 63. 

 Fam. 31. Papaveraceae. 



B. Papaver aculeatum Thunb. I. Small plant. 2. Capsule filled with seeds. 2/1. 

 3. Seed. 30/1. 4. Seed in long, section. 30/1. 



C. Fumaria Mundtil Spreng. 



D. Argemone mexkana L. Capsule and seeds. 



Fam. 32. Capparidaceae. 



A. Cadaba juncea Harv. 1. Flowering twig. 2. Capsules, ripe. 3. Seeds, one 

 with and one without the oily fruit pulp. (Also Plate 65, opposite page 242.) 



Papaver aculeatum {Wild poppy). While there are numerous species of 

 poppy in Europe and Asia, one only occurs in South Africa. It is frequent in 

 the eastern and northern districts extending into the Tropics. The flowers are 

 a brilliant scarlet-orange, difficult to describe and to render. 



Argemone mexkana {Mexican poppy) is an introduced weed, now, owing 

 to the profusion of seeds which each plant produces, of universal occurrence 

 in all the warmer and drier parts of the country. There are often one 

 hundred seeds in a single capsule, and as a moderate sized plant will bear 20 

 or 30 capsules, a large one perhaps two or three times that number, the weed 

 has been spread by wind and water to such an extent that it is now a real pest, 

 especially along rivers and on irrigated lands. Where care is taken before it is 

 too late, the plant may be kept in check, as we have seen done on several farms 

 in the Kimberley and other districts. The capsule of Argemone opens in quite 

 a different way from that of the poppies (Figs. B 2 and D). 



Fumaria. The flowers appear at first sight so different from those of 

 the poppy that one often treats it and the allied genera, viz. Corydalis etc. as 

 a distinct family, viz. Fumariaceae. The parts correspond, however, so 

 exactly to each other, that it appears preferable not to separate these genera 

 from Papaveraceae. 



F. Mundtii. This is sometimes separated from Fumaria as a distinct 

 genus, viz. Discocapnos (Flor. Cap. 1, 18), the difference being in the little 

 fruits, which are simply globular in F. officinalis, the common fumitory 

 {duiven kervel), but provided with a flat margin in our plant. While our 

 fumitory, although slightly different in its foliage from the European form, 

 is probably of recent introduction, that means to say brought here since 

 the occupation of the country by the white race, the sub-genera Discocapnos 

 and Phacocapnos {Corydalis), which are endemic here, must have originated at 

 a more remote period from ancestors introduced then but now extinct. 



There are quite a considerable number of parallel cases in our flora, of 

 which a few may be mentioned here, viz. Cerastium capense, Papaver aculeatum, 

 Geum capense, Epilobium, Viola, Stachys, Scabiosa africana, Hieracium capense, etc. 



Annual, frequent among shrubs of the South West, appearing in winter 

 and flowering in spring, disappearing after fruiting. 



