118 FUMARIACE^. 



by Lindley (Inlrod. to Nat. System, ed. 1, etc.). On the other hand, M. 

 Gay has recently maintained,* that these are the four normal stamens of a 

 complete inner verticel, while two of those of the outer vertic'el (with 2-cell- 

 ed anthers) are wanting, and that the flower is therefore really hexandrous 

 and with the same arrangement as in Cruciferas. The objection to this 

 view is, that it presupposes a truly quaternary, instead of a binary, plan of 

 the flower. 



Taking a still different view, I presume that the lateral stamens in this 

 case will be found to arise by the process called " didoubhment " by the 

 French botanists (happily translated deduplication by Mr. Henfrey) ; — a 

 mode of increase in the number of ■parts, particularly of the stamens, which 

 must be allowed to occur in analogous cases, if the observations of Duchatre 

 were accurately made, and which is not at all incompatible with received 

 morphological views ; for a single phyton may as readily give rise to a clus- 

 ter of stamens as to the several leaflets of a digitate leaf. 



The two sepals are anterior and posterior and the carpels lateral (right 

 and left as respects the axis), just as in Cruciferse ; hut, by the torsion of 

 the pedicel in flower, the carpels, with the outer petals to which they corre- 

 spond, appear to be anterior and posterior. 



As to sensible qualities, Fumariaceas are slightly bitter and astringent, or 

 with the tubers, &c, a little acrid ; but of no especial importance. 



This small order, with the exception of two species indigenous to the 

 Cape of Good Hope, belongs entirely to the temperate zone, and chiefly to 

 the Old World. One species of the genus Fumaria (which gives its name 

 to the order, although it is a greatly simplified form, as to the fruit, which 

 is reduced to a one-seeded nutlet) is sparingly naturalized around old gar- 

 dens and dwellings in the Northern States. The indigenous representatives 

 of the family in North America, scarcely a dozen in number, are restricted 

 to three genera ; namely, Dicentra and Adlumia, with both of the exterior 

 petals gibbous or saccate at the base, and Corydatis, in which only one of 

 them is saccate or spurred. 



* In Jinn. Sci. JVat. ser. 2. (Oct. 1842.) 2. p. 216. 



