Papaveraceae
A natural order of glabrous and often glaucescent, or long-pilose, herbs, or very rarely small shrubs, mostly inhabiting the temperate, cold, and sub-tropical regions of the Northern hemisphere, only a few being found within the tropics or in the Southern hemisphere. Flowers hermaphrodite, regular or (in Fumarieae) irregular; sepals two or three, rarely four, free, imbricated, very caducous; petals four or six, rarely eight or twelve, free, in two, or rarely three, series, imbricated and frequently corrugated, deciduous; stamens hypogynous, free, or the filaments connate; peduncles one-flowered, or very rarely sub-umbellately many-flowered, usually elongated, terminal or in the upper axils. Fruit a capsule. Leaves alternate, or the floral ones occasionally sub-opposite, entire, or often lobed or dissected, exstipulate. Many of the species contain coloured juices. The most important product, however, is opium, prepared from the milky juice of Papaver somniferum; this species is also cultivated in France for its seeds, which yield what is known as white oil or oleum. The order comprises twenty-five genera and about 160 species. Well-known examples are: Eschscholtzia, Fumaria, Papaver, and Platystemon.