GOLD-OF-PLEASURE 101 



capsules are two-valved, and do not open, but the seeds are left to 

 germinate around the parent plant. 



The Fumitory is a sand plant, luxuriating- in a sand soil, and 

 growing on marly formations such as the Keuper, and sandstone such 

 as the Middle Lias. 



The only fungal pest is Pcronospora affinis. No insects prey 

 on it. 



The name Funiaria was invented by Gesner from the Latin fumus, 

 smoke, and fumus tcrrtc (hence Fumitory) means earth smoke, while 

 officinalis refers to its former medicinal use. 



The English names are Beggary, Earth-smoke, Fume-of-the- 

 Earth, Fumiterre, Fumitory, Fumusterre, God's Fingers and Thumbs, 

 Snapdragon, Wax Dolls. 



The old writers called it Fumitory, imagining that it was produced 

 without seed from vapours rising from the earth. This may be con- 

 nected with the fact that the root when just pulled up gives off a 

 gaseous smell, like fumes of nitric acid. Others held it so because 

 at a distance it looked like blue smoke. 



It was " used when gathered in wedding hours, and boiled in water 

 milk and whey, as a wash for the complexion of rustic maids". The 

 juice was said to cure bad sight or clear it. In the fourteenth century 

 it formed an ingredient in a remedy for bad blood and leprous diseases, 

 but is of no medicinal value, though it was used for scurvy, eczema, &c. 



ESSKXTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



22. Fnmaria officinalis, L. Stem erect, leaves bipinnate, leaflets 

 cuneate, sepals not so wide as corolla tube, flower rose-coloured, 

 capsule subglobose, retuse. 



Gold-of-Pleasure (Camelina sativa, Crantz) 



Seeds of this plant have not yet been found in Glacial beds, nor 

 earlier than the present epoch. It is found in the Warm Temperate 

 Zone in Central and S. Europe, and Temperate Asia. The occurrence 

 of this plant in England is merely sporadic, and it is associated with 

 other plants of alien origin and merely passing permanence. Its dis- 

 tribution is not therefore known. 



Gold-of-Pleasure is one of those chance occupiers of the cornfield or 

 flax field that delight the heart of the bird-fancier, who uses their seed 

 for his stock, but it is not regularly found in its favourite stations year 

 by year, coming up with grain sown yearly, or perchance here and there 

 surviving a good cleaning of the stubble of last year. Flax-like it hides 



