100 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
the bases of decayed leaves. Stems erect, 1} to 3 feet high, swel- 
ling at the base of each internode. Leaves deeply pinnipartite, 
appearing almost pinnate, with 5 to 7 oval or oblong leaflets, 1 to 2 
inches long; in var. 6 much narrower than in the common form, 
and irregularly cut, while in var. « they are generally doubly 
crenate; the terminal leaflet commonly 3-cleft; the lateral ones 
usually with a stalklike portion at the base, from the lower side of 
which a lobe is developed, looking like a stipule to the segment, 
the basal leaflets are commonly without this appendage. Peduncles 
terminating the stem and branches. Flowers 3 to 1 inch in 
diameter, on slender pedicels, 4 to 8 together, in umbels surrounded 
by an involucre of small bracts. Sepals greenish yellow, more or 
less hairy. Petals broadly obovate, bright yellow, entire in var. a; 
narrower and cut into a few narrow segments in var. 8. Pods about 
14 inch long, beaded, readily splitting if touched when ripe. Seeds 
small, black, with a white crest. Whole plant pale yellowish green, 
siightly glaucous and hairy. Stem and leaves very brittle. Milk-sap 
bright orange, very abundant. 
Common Celandine, Swallow Wort. 
French, Chélidoine Eclaire. German, Das Gemeine Schillkraut, Goldwurz, Gilbkraut, 
' Schwalbenkraut. 
Pliny writes that “with this herb the swallows restore sight to their young 
ones when they cannot see.” Our old friend Gerarde says “this is vain and false,” 
—with which decision we are inclined to agree. Still he cannot entirely give up 
some fancied benefit to be received from this plant by man, if not by birds, for he 
writes: ‘‘The juice of the herbe is good to sharpen the sight, for it cleanseth and 
consumeth away slimie things that cleave about the ball of the eye, and hinder the 
sight, and especially being boiled with hony in a brasen vessell, as Dioscorides 
teacheth.” The acrimonious yellow milk of this plant will, like many other vegetable 
exudations, destroy the vitality of warts, and it was at one time frequently used in this 
way. The old alchemic doctors, reasoning that “like cures like,” held that it was 
good to “superstifle the jaundice,” because of its intense yellow colour. This plant 
contains two alkaloids, chelidonine and chelerytherine, which form salts with acids, 
The latter is narcotic and poisonous. The Chelidonium majus is undoubtedly the true 
Celandine, although poets have given that name to the Ranunculus Ficaria, or Figwort, 
which lacks anything like a fanciful or pretty designation itself the which to weave 
into a song. 
Sun-OrpvEerR II.—FUMARIE. 
Outer petals quite unlike the inner ones. Stamens definite, 6 in 
number, united by the filaments into 2 bundles consisting each of 
3 stamens, of which the lateral ones have a 1-celled, and the 
intermediate one a 2-celled anther. 
The above definition excludes the Hypecoum, which, notwith- 
standing the definite stamens, is much nearer to Papavereee than 
to any of the genera of Fumariez. 
