Ord. fumariacej:. 



Herbae tenerse (succo aqueo innocuo), dissectifoliae, exsti- 

 pulatae : dicotyledoneas, hypogynae, hermaphrodita?, dimerae ; 

 petalis 4 cruciatis irregularibus ; staminibus 6 diadelphis 

 dimorphis ; ovario uniloculari, placentis 2 parietalibus ; ovu- 

 lis amphitropis ; embryone in basi albuminis subcurvati 

 minimo. 



Fcmariaceje, DC. Syst. 2. p. 105, & Prodr. 1. p. 125. Meisn. Gen. p. 8. 



Lindl. Veg. Kingd. p. 435. 

 Papaverace^e, Subord. Fumariace.e, Bernh. in Linnaea, 8. p. 401, 473. 



Endl. Gen. p. 858. 



The Fumitory Family accords so nearly with Papaveracea? in the struc- 

 ture of the fruit and seeds, that these plants were included in that order by 

 Jussieu, and are still regarded by eminent botanists as forming merely a di- 

 vision of it with irregular flowers. Indeed, of the botanists who receive the 

 family as distinct, some admit Hypecoum and its allies to form a component 

 part of it (as does Lindley, notwithstanding his removing the family to 

 another alliance than that which contains the Poppy Family), while others 

 exclude them. According to the latter view, which is manifestly to be adopt- 

 ed when (from considerations of convenience chiefly) the family is kept dis- 

 tinct, Fumariaceaj are to be characterized by the irregular 1 - 2-spurred or 

 saccate corolla, the four connivent petals of which, or at least the two inner, 

 are more or less coherent ; and by the diadelphous stamens, placed three in 

 each set before the exterior petals, with dimorphous anthers ; the central one 

 of each set being two-celled, while the lateral are only one-celled and but half 

 the size. The anthers with the stigma remain inclosed in the little, cavity 

 formed by the cohesion of the spoon-shaped tips of the two inner petals, 

 which never open. The bitterish or slightly acid and watery (instead of 

 colored or milky) juice is not diagnostic : for it is quite the same in Esch- 

 scholtzia and other undoubted Papaveraceae, which apparently are equally 

 destitute of any narcotic quality. 



To account for the nature and position of the four stamens with one-celled 

 anthers, De Candolle suggested that these result from the fission of the two 

 stamens of the inner series which (in the regular symmetry of the binary 

 flower) should stand before the inner petals; — a view which was reproduced 



