FUMARIA CAPREOLATA OF BRITAIN. 161 
The size of the fruit separates F. muralis from its allies: it is 
much smaller and also much rounder. The other species now 
under consideration have fruits allvery nearly equal in size, although 
differing in form. 
There is a curious spur attached to, and apparently forming a 
continuation backwards of, the agglutinated filaments of the upper 
cluster of stamens. It is directed backwards into the spur of the 
upper petal, and may possibly furnish characters by which to 
assist in distinguishing species. I believe that the credit of first 
calling attention to it belongs to Parlatore, who describes and 
figures it in his ‘Monografia.’ My acquaintance with it is very 
slight, my attention having only recently been directed to it. If 
we may judge from books, few botanists appear to know of its 
existence. 
I have failed in detecting any constant characters in the leaves, 
the forms and sizes of which are very variable. Neither does the 
erect or rampant or prostrate state of the stem seem to be of much 
consequence. When writing about F. confusa (my F. agraria) in 
the ‘Botanical Gazette,’ I remarked that the stem was erect in 
the earlier, and procumbent in the later part of the summer. 
Such I suspect to be also the case in the other plants now under 
consideration. 
The differences which are found in the forms and proportions of 
the sepals and of the bracts will be noticed under the several spe- 
cies, as will be also the colour of the corolla and the direction of 
the fruit-bearing pedicels. | 
The only British plant which сап be confounded with these 
Capreolate is the diffuse state of F. officinalis. It is perhaps often 
called F. capreolata by careless observers ; and its being distributed 
by them with that name has tended to confuse the ideas of better 
botanists who have only had the dried specimens before them. 
Amongst nearly allied and similar-looking plants, it is often better 
to append no name to a specimen than to risk the application of a 
wrong one. This rampant form of F. officinalis agrees in nearly all 
respects with the erect and typical form of that species. Its spikes 
of fruit are very long and lax ; its fruits are obovate-retuse, with 
a very faintly marked base and decidedly rugose surface ; its lower 
petal is spathulate, being linear with the exception of а round 
dilatation at the end. Аз far as I am able to ascertain, the spikes 
of all these Capreolate are always much shorter; their fruits are 
never retuse, have always a marked base, and a surface which is 
not rugose, although sometimes slightly rough when dry; their 
