FUMITORY TRIBE 41 



" Anil Fumitory, too, a name 

 Which superstition holds to Fame." 



This, and other species, are, however, still used in milk as a cosmetic, and 

 probalily are not without efficacy in removing freckles, and the brown tint 

 given by exposure to the sun. Shakspeare alludes to the Fumitory as a si^n 

 of a neglected soil : — 



" Iler fallow leas 

 The darnel, hemlock and rank fumitory 

 Doth root upon ; wliilc that the coulter rests 

 That should deracinate such savagery. 

 The even mead that erst brought sweetly forth 

 The freckled cowslip, buniet, and sweet clover, 

 Wanting the scythe, all uncorrupted rank." 



2. Common Fumitory (F. officindlis). — Sepals narrower than the 

 corolla, acute, sharply toothed ; fruit nearly globose, terminating abruptly ; 

 leaflets narrow, usually channelled. Plant annual. Common as this plant 

 is in dry fields and on road-sides, and intruding itself unbidden into the 

 garden, yet it is not indigenous to our soil, though now one of its commonest 

 weeds. In the days of Conrad G-esner, it was rare in the fields of Southern 

 Europe, and supposed to come from the East ; now, it grows not only in 

 England, but is wild in the corn-fields of most continental countries, from 

 Greece to Lapland. The flowers are smaller than those of the species last 

 described ; they are rose-coloured, and tipped with purple ; and children, in 

 many parts of Kent, call them wax dolls. The plant is in flower nearly all 

 the summer ; and even as early as May the field of young green corn is often 

 reddened by its numbers. It was formerly much used as a tonic medicine ; 

 and Thunberg mentions that in Japan it is employed medicinally. 



3. Least-flowered Fumitory {F. parviflura). — Sepals very minute ; 

 fruit globose, slightly pointed, or blunt; leaflets linear, channelled. Plant 

 annual. This plant is found flowering in waste places from June to Sep- 

 tember, but it is by no means common. Its range in this country extends 

 from Mid-Scotland to Surrey and Kent. Its narrow leaf-segments are 

 yellowish-green, and its pale flowers are produced in dense racemes. These 

 flowers, at first almost white, afterwards become purple. 



4. Small-flowered Fumitory (F. micrdntha). — Sepals somewhat cor- 

 date at the base, deeply toothed at the margin, concave at the back, shorter 

 and broader than the corolla. Segments of the leaves narrow and channelled. 

 Plant annual. A small plant, blooming from June to August, in waste 

 places ; not rare in England, and found in several spots in the east of Scot- 

 land. Several varieties of the last two species are described, while many 

 botanists consider that both of these small-flowered kinds of Fumitory are 

 but varieties of the commoner and larger kinds. This is the F. densiflora of 

 Decandolle. 



Order VI. CRUCIFERiE— CRUCIFEROUS TRIBE. 



The crosswise arrangement of the petals at once distinguishes the cruci- 

 form plants, instances of which blossoms are very familiar in the Wallflower, 

 Stock, and other wild and garden plants. The petals are invariably four in 



6 



