Argemone
(from argema, cataract of the eye; in allusion to some real or fancied medicinal properties possessed by the plants.) ORD. Papaveraceoe. A genus of very handsome and showy annual or perennial herbs, abounding with a yellowish juice, and covered with stiff prickles. Sepals two or three, concave, mucronate; petals four to eight; peduncles axillary, always erect. Leaves sessile, repand-sinuate, usually spotted with white; recesses spiny-toothed. The five species here described are hardy annuals, and will thrive in almost any ordinary garden soil in the open border. Seed may be sown out of doors about the end of March; those of the rarer species on a hotbed, the seedlings being planted out about the end of June. A. albiflora (white-flowered).* fl. white; petals usually three. July and