CHELrDONIUM. 



CHELIDONIUM. 



Sepals 2. Petals 4. Stamens numerous. Capsule long, 

 2-valved, 1-celled, with the valves opening from the base to the 

 apex. Seeds with a glandular crest. — Evergreen tender peren- 

 nials, with an acrid yellow juice. 



45. C. majus Linn. sp. pi 723. Eng. Bot. 1. 1531. Ft. Dan. 

 t. 676. DC.prodr. i. 123. S. and C. ii. t. 86. Woodv. t. 263. 

 — Shady places all over Europe. (Celandine.) 



A biennial. Stem 2 feet high, branched, swelled at the joints, leafy, 

 round, smooth. Leaves smooth, very deeply pinnatifid, their lobes in 

 2 or 3 pairs, the terminal one largest, all rounded, bluntly lobed and 

 notched ; the lateral ones sometimes dilated at their lower margin, near 

 the base, almost as if auricled ; their colour a deep shining green. 

 Flowers bright yellow, umbellate, on long, often hairy stalks. Calyx 

 tawny, often hairy. Seeds black and shining, each with a whitish deci- 

 duous crest. — The juice is a violent acrid poison. It has been regarded 

 medicinally as stimulating, aperient, diuretic, and sudorific, it was also 

 considered a powerful deobstruent. It is a popular remedy for warts, 

 and has been employed successfully in opacities of the cornea. 



FUMARIE^. 



Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 9. 



FUMARIA. 



One petal only gibbous or spurred at the base. Achenium 

 1-seeded, its style dropping off after flowering. 



46. F. officinalis Linn. sp. pi, 984. Eng. Bot. t. 589. 

 DC.prodr. i. 130. — A common weed, in dry waste ground. 



An annual glaucous weed. Stem much branched, spreading, often 

 recumbent, leafy, angular. Leaves mostly alternate, twice or thrice pin- 

 nate ; leaflets wedge-shaped, with flat lanceolate segments. Racemes 

 opposite to the leaves, stalked, erect, many-flowered, rather lax. Bracts 

 lanceolate, acute, not half the length of the flower-stalks, especially 

 when in fruit. Flowers rose-coloured, or pale red, deep red at the sum- 

 mit, with a green keel to the upper and under petals. Spur very short, 

 rounded. Calyx coloured, toothed, deciduous. Fruit globose, emar- 

 ginate. — Herbage bitter, slightly diaphoretic and aperient ; the juice 

 was formerly administered in cutaneous diseases and obstructions of 

 the liver. 



17 c 



