Sepals 2, hairy. Petals 4. Style distinct, columnar; stigma 2–4-lobed. Pods bristly, 2–4-valved to the base. Seeds conspicuously crested.—Perennial low herbs, with stems naked below and oppositely 2-leaved, or sometimes 1–3-leaved, and umbellately 1–few-flowered at the summit; the flower-buds and the pods nodding. Leaves pinnately parted or divided. Juice yellow. (From στύλος, style, and φέρω, to bear, one of the distinctive characters.)
1. S. diphýllum, Nutt. Leaves pale or glaucous beneath, smoothish, deeply pinnatifid into 5 or 7 oblong sinuate-lobed divisions, and the root-leaves often with a pair of smaller and distinct leaflets; peduncles equalling the petioles; flower deep yellow (2´ broad); stigmas 3 or 4; pod oval.—Damp woods, W. Penn. to Wisc. and Tenn. May.—Foliage and flower resembling Celandine.
3. CHELIDÒNIUM, L. Celandine.
Sepals 2. Petals 4. Stamens 16–24. Style nearly none; stigma 2-lobed. Pod linear, slender, smooth, 2-valved, the valves opening from the bottom upward. Seeds crested.—Biennial herb with brittle stems, saffron-colored acrid juice, pinnately divided or 2-pinnatifid and toothed or cut leaves, and small yellow flowers in a pedunculate umbel; buds nodding. (Ancient Greek name from χελιδών, the swallow, because its flowers appear with the swallows.)
C. màjus, L. (Celandine.) Waste grounds near dwellings. May–Aug. (Adv. from Eu.)
4. GLAÙCIUM, Tourn. Horn-Poppy.
Sepals 2. Petals 4. Style none; stigma 2-lobed or 2-horned. Pod very long and linear, completely 2-celled by a spongy false partition; seeds crestless.—Annuals or biennials, with saffron-colored juice, clasping leaves, and solitary yellow flowers. (The Greek name, γλαύκιον, from the glaucous foliage.)
G. lùteum, Scop. Lower leaves pinnatifid; upper ones sinuate-lobed and toothed, cordate-clasping; pods rough (6–10´ long).—Waste places S. E. New Eng., Md., and Va.; not common. (Adv. from Eu.)
5. PAPÀVER, Tourn. Poppy.
Sepals mostly 2. Petals mostly 4. Stigmas united in a flat 4–20-rayed crown, resting on the summit of the ovary and capsule; the latter short and turgid, with 4–20 many-seeded placentæ projecting like imperfect partitions, opening by as many pores or chinks under the edge of the stigma.—Herbs with a white juice; the flower-buds nodding. (Derivation obscure.)—Three annual species of the Old World are sparingly adventive; viz.: