17 
CHAPTER II. 
PAPAVERACE^. 
BoT»mctL Character of the Order Sepals 2. Petals 4 or 8. I globose, or elongated and riliqne-formed. Herbg yielding milky 
stamens numerous, hypogynous. Capsule valveless, and nearly I juice.— (G. Don.) 
Description, &c. — The plants belonging to this order are easily distinguished by a common observer from 
those belonging to RanunculacesD by their juice being milky instead of watery. Botanically, they dififer in the 
calyx, which separates into only two sepals, as may be seen by the bud of the poppy, instead of three or six ; 
and in the number of the petals of their single varieties, which are always either twice two, or twice four. The 
seeds also are numerous, and contained in one capsule or pod, instead of being in several distinct carpels growing 
near together. The stamens grow below the seed-vessels, in the same manner as those of the Ranunculaceje. 
Plants belonging to this order are poisonous, but not in the same degree as those belonging to Ranunculaceae, 
and their poison is narcotic or stupifying, and not acrid. Tho poison of the Papaveraceae is confined to their 
milky juice. They are natives of Europe, Asia, America, and the south of Africa. 
GENUS I. 
PAPAVER Lin. THE POPPY. 
Lin. Syst. POLYANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Generic Character. — Petals 4. Stamens indefinite ; style wanting. Stigmas 4 — 20, radiating, sessile, connected, crowning the top of tho 
ovarium. Capsules obovate. — (G. Don.) 
Description, &c. — All the poppies are strong vigorous-growing plants, bearing their showy flowers on very 
long footstalks. These flowers never last long, many of the kinds dropping their petals the very day that they 
expand, and all leaving a large obovate capsule which contains an enormous number of seeds. These seeds, when 
yonng, are disposed along some thin shelf-like divisions, enclosed in the capsules, but as they ripen they become 
loose, and the outside of the capsule, from being green and succulent, becomes of a pale brown, and hard, dry, 
and brittle. The points of the stigmas remain and form a sort of cover over this capsule ; and immediatoly 
imder each stigma-point is a little valve-like opening, through which the seeds fall out when the poppy-head is 
reversed. The milky juice of the poppy is more narcotic than that of any other genus of the order. 
D 
