V. PAPAVERACEiE 
23 
V. PAP AVERAGE JE 
Erect, glabrous or nearly glabrous herbs ; juice coloured. 
Leaves alternate, pinnatifid. Flowers 2-sexual, regular, ter- 
minal, solitary. Sepals 2 or 3, free, falling off as the flower 
expands. Petals 4 or 6, in 2 series, hypogynous, free, soon falling 
off. Stamens numerous, free, anthers 2-celled. Ovary superior, 
1 -celled ; stigma sessile, ovules numerous. Capsule dehiscing by 
pores or valves. — Temperate and subtropical regions of the N. 
Hemisphere ; very few within the tropics or in the S. Hemisphere. 
Some species have spread as weeds of cultivation over nearly the 
whole world. 
Meconopsis aculeata, Hoyle ; FI. Br. Ind. i. 118, occurs on the Chor, but 
is not found below 11,000 ft. A prickly herb, 1-2 ft. high, with pinnatifid leaves 
and blue-purple flowers 2-3 in. across. 
Leaves not spinous. Flowers red with a dark centre . 1. Papaver. 
Leaves spinous, thistle-like. Flowers yellow . . . .2. Argemone. 
1. PAPAVER. The classical (Latin) name of the Poppy ; 
etymology obscure. — Temperate and subtropical Asia, N. Africa, 
Europe, rare in the S. Hemisphere. 
Papaver dubium, Linn. ; FI. Br. Ind. i. 117. Nearly glabrous ; 
stems 1-2 ft. ; juice milky. Leaves sessile, 3-6 in., pinnatifid, 
segments lobed, acute. Buds ovoid, nodding. Flowers 1-2 in. 
diam., terminal on long bristly stalks. Sepals 2, ovate. Petals 4, 
in unequal pairs, crumpled in bud, red with a dark spot at the 
base, soon falling off. Ovary more or less divided by about 6 
ovule-bearing partitions projecting inwards nearly to the centre of 
the cavity ; style none ; stigmas as many as the partitions, linear, 
adnate to the convex top of the ovary and radiating from its 
centre ;• ovules numerous. Capsule glabrous, narrowly oblong, 
f-1 in., opening by pores close under the projecting rim of the 
stigmatic disk. Seeds numerous, small, kidney-shaped, minutely 
netted. 
Simla, in fields ; March, April. — W. Himalaya, 4000-7000 ft. — W. Asia, 
Europe (Britain, Poppy). 
P. Rhoeas, Linn. ; FI. Br. Ind. i. 117 ; the Field Poppy of Britain, extends 
to Kashmir and may perhaps occur in fields as far west as Simla ; it differs 
from the above in having flowers 3-4 in. diam., 8-12 stigmatic rays, and a 
globose capsule. 
The Opium Poppy, P. somniferum , is sometimes cultivated in the Simla 
district. 
