THALAMIFLORi© 89 



A certain habitat in which to find the Common 

 Fumitory is a cornfield, where it is often frequent. 

 Turnip fields are also suitable habitats in which to 

 seek it. It grows very luxuriantly in the latter, with 

 Charlock, Poppies, White Campion, Heartsease, 

 Spurrey, Persicaria, Buxbaum's Speedwell, and other 

 cornfield plants. In waste places it may often be 

 found in great quantity. It is a colonist. 



This plant is a leaf-climber. Darwin has so well 

 described it that his remarks may be quoted with 

 advantage on this point. He says : *' It could not 

 have been anticipated that so lowly a plant as this 

 Fumaria should have been a climber. It climbs by 

 the aid of the main and lateral petioles of its com- 

 pound leaves ; and even the much-flattened terminal 

 portion of the petiole can seize a support. I have 

 seen a substance as soft as a withered blade of grass 

 caught. Petioles which have clasped any object 

 ultimately become rather thicker and more cylin- 

 drical. On lightly rubbing several petioles with 

 a twig, they became perceptibly curved in ih. 15m., 

 and subsequently straightened themselves. 



^' A stick gently placed in the angle between two 

 sub-petioles excited them to move, and was almost 

 clasped in nine hours. A loop of thread, weighing 

 one-eighth of a grain, caused, after twelve hours and 

 before twenty hours had elapsed, a considerable 

 curvature ; but it was never fairly clasped by the 

 petiole. The young internodes are in continual 

 movement, which is considerable in extent, but very 



