The Poppy is another of those plants concerning which it may be thought that neither illustration nor description is necessary; but there are poppies and poppies; and though the rambler may gather a bunch of flowers from various situations and consider them all the same, a few words of description may serve to point out considerable differences. Through the Poppy we make acquaintance with another Natural Order, the PapaveraceÆ, and its typical genus, Papaver. The plants comprised in the genus are annual herbs, with milky juice of a narcotic nature. The flowers are borne on very long slender stalks, and consist of two concave sepals, which are thrown off by the expanding of the four crumpled petals. The pistil, which afterwards develops into the familiar “poppy-head,” is surmounted by the many stigmas which form a rayed disk.
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