1895.] 
D. Prain — Some additional Papaveracese. 
309 
clasp at the base. Some specimens collected by Dr. Stapf in Persia show that occa¬ 
sionally the species may be distinctly biennial. 
9. (5.) Papayer somniferum Linn. 
It is of interest, in connection with the theory that the people of China first 
learned the use of Opium and first obtained the Opium Poppy itself from India, 
to find from a careful examination of specimens of the Poppy cultivated for Opium 
in China that are preserved in the magnificent botanical collections of London, 
Paris and Geneva, that this Poppy belongs to a race quite distinct from the Indian 
plant, more nearly allied to the form of Papaver somniferum that produces Persian 
Opium than to the form that is cultivated in Hindustan. The specimens referred 
to come from Yunnan, Szechuen, Hunan and Hupeh. Curiously the only Chinese 
specimens of Papaver somniferum, cultivated for Opium, that are indistinguishable 
from the Indian race, which the writer has seen, are in Herb. Calcutta. They were 
communicated by Fortune in 1853 and are from the Eastern province of Che-kiang, 
not from Central or South-Western China where the Opium Poppy is chiefly 
cultivated. 
2. (1*.) ARGEMONE Linn. 
1. Argemone mexioana Linn. 
Four of the gatherings issued by Wallich under this name (Cat. Lith. n. 8126) 
are really this species, the fifth (8126 E. from Kamaon) is the yellow-flowered Me- 
conopsis described by Hooker and Thomson as M. robusta. 
3. (2.) MECONOPSIS Viguier. 
Key to the Indian species (incorporating the neve forms.) 
# Stems, leaves, sepals and ovaries prickly ; stigmas pyramidal 
(flowers pale purple, papaveroid, (i.e., petals 4) exception¬ 
ally sanguinarioid, ( i e., 5-8) :— 
f Stems not leafy, radical leaves many persisting ; scapes 
radical 1-fld or pseudo-cymose from agglutination of 
scapes, pedicels not or very rarely bracteate, torus 
distinctly enlarged ; leaves lanceolate (entire or, rare¬ 
ly, acutely dentate ; capsules densely aculeate short 
oblong or obovate, twice as long as style)... ... 1. M. horridula. 
f t Stems leafy, radical leaves few vanishing ; flowers in 
racemose cymes with bracteate pedicels ; torus not 
expanded ; leaves oblong :— 
J Leaves irregularly pinuatifid; capsules densely 
aculeate, short oblong or obovate, twice as long as 
style ... ... ... ... ... 2 . M. aculeata. 
£ J Leaves with sinuate or subentire margins ; capsules 
sparsely aculeate long narrowly obconic, five times 
as long as style ... ..• ... 3. If. sinuata. 
* * Stems, leaves, sepals and ovaries without prickles ; stigmas 
capitate entire or (in M. primulina ) 2-lobed :— 
f Stems leafy :— 
X Stems often branching, cymes many-flowered rare- 
