COMMON 'FmilTORY.—Fumaria 



officinalis. 



Class DiADELpniA. Order Hexandria. Nat. Ord. Fumariace^. 

 Fumitory Tribe. 



This plant is the Fume-de-terre of the French 

 rustic, and the Earth-smoke of the people of 

 our northern counties. Both its English name, 

 and the Latin, derived from fimius, smoke, 

 refer to the same idea. The name is said to 

 be taken from the odour of the plant ; yet this, 

 though somewhat unpleasant, is not very 

 similar to that of smoke. The author has 

 known Kentish children call the plant wax 

 dolls, and the rose-coloured flowers, with their 

 httle dark purple heads, are not unlike the 

 small w^axen toys made to please the taste of 

 childhood. The plant w^as formerly a valuable 

 medicine in cutaneous disorders ; its young 

 tops are still prepared as a tonic ; and Thun- 

 berg says, that the people of Japan make much 

 medicinal use of it. Clare, one of our most 

 original poets, and one well acquainted with 

 rural practices, alludes to its use as a cosmetic, 

 when describing the flowers which the weeders 

 eradicate. 



" And Fumitory too, a name 

 Which Superstition holds to Fame, 



