9 WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND BLOSSOMS. 



the case with the lower portion of the plant. The leaves arc 

 thin and much divided. The flowers are peculiarly formed, 

 and their arrangement is known as a raceme. Each consists 

 of a couple of small sepals, and four petals arranged in two 

 unequal pairs ; the upper petal is spurred at the base, the 

 lateral pair connected by their tips and completely enclosing 

 the stamens and pistil. 



The plant is common in dry fields and waste places through- 

 out the three kingdoms, and indeed over a great part of the 

 earth, for it is a plant that has followed close in the wake of 

 cultivation. The name is an ancient one, derived from the 

 Latin, fumus, smoke, some have said on account of the light 

 unsubstantial character of the plant ; but, according to Pliny, 

 because the watery juice brought on such a flow of tears that 

 the sight was dimmed as by smoke. This is not . very 

 satisfactory ; but nothing better in the way of explanation 

 has been offered, so we must be content with it. It had 

 formerly a great reputation in medicine. Flowers from May 

 till September. 



There are three other British species : 



Rampant Fumitory (F. capreolata) which climbs to a height of 13 to 2 feet by 

 means of its twisting leaf-stalks. Its cream-coloured flowers are more loosely 

 borne in the raceme than in F. officinalis. Small-flowered Fumitory (F. densi- 

 flora), similar to F. officinalis^ but smaller and weaker, flowers paler, racemes short, 

 leaflets smaller and narrower. 



Least-flowered Fumitory (F. parviftora), with small pale flowers and minute 

 sepals ; racemes dense. 



These three species are rare, the last especially so. 



Lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis). 



Occasionally in woods and copses the rambler will come 

 across this plant, which flowers in April and May. It is not 

 truly a native, but has become naturalized in England and the 

 South of Scotland. Time was when well-nigh every garden 

 had its clump of Lungwort, for it had a splendid reputation 



