THE GENUS FUMARIA IN BRITAIN 



"y 'provincialis nob." With large flowers and coloured sepals. 



" S atrosanguinea Brock. & Neyr." With dark red flowers. 



The varietal distinctions being based, as before, mainly on the 

 colour of the corolla and the form of the sepals. 



It is noteworthy that none of these Continental authors 

 mention any differences in the fruits of these plants, excepting 

 Jordan, who, in his original diagnosis of F. sioeciosa, states that 

 they are more obtuse than those of F. capreolata. 



There is fortunately a large series of foreign examples of this 

 species at Kew and the British Museum, which I have recently 

 examined ; and I can only conclude that the differences to be seen 

 are almost entirely those of form in the sepals, and size and 

 colour in the corolla. Specimens which appear to be shade-grown 

 generally show smaller and paler flowers, with longer and narrower 

 sepals, than those that are more normal ; but I do not think 

 environment to be the sole cause of variation, for such plants as 

 Jordan designated F. s2)eciosa appear to produce, under similar 

 conditions, more highly coloured flowers, and perhaps on an 

 average somewhat shorter sepals than are found on the more 

 generally distributed form which Hammar takes as the type. A 

 good sheet of authentic and well- grown F. speciosa Jord. at the 

 British Museum (which was not available in 1902) shows the 

 upper petal dorsally suffused with rosy-purple almost from the 

 bud stage, the colour eventually overspreading the whole corolla, 

 when it contrasts strongly with the whitish sepals. I have 

 received similar specimens from Hy^res and the Pyrenees. On 

 the other hand, in the pale-flowered form, the reddish suffusion, 

 if present at all before fertilization, is confined to the back of the 

 upper petal and never covers the whole corolla ; and I think 

 Jordan was probably correct also in attributing a greater persis- 

 tency to the corolla of his F. pallidiflora. 



With regard to the fruit, the small smooth type that Hauss- 

 knecht thought a feature of the aggregate species is to be found, 

 with no appreciable variation, in all the plants that I have 

 examined, except that in some French specimens a narrower and 

 consequently less obtuse outline obtains, which Jordan probably 

 considered characteristic of his F. pallidiflora. 



I therefore follow Hammar in his conception of the type of 

 F. capreolata, and in regarding F. speciosa as hardly differing 

 except in floral characters, and indeed little more than a colour 

 variety. 



It will now be seen, on turning to my former paper (Journ. 

 Bot. 1902, p. 131), that the plant of the Channel Islands which I 

 separated from the British form and referred to F. speciosa has 

 flowers too pale to be rightly assigned to that variety, and is really 

 identical with the Continental type, as defined by Hammar. 

 Other specimens that I have since seen from Guernsey belong to 

 the same form, but from Mr. Marquand's remark in his Flora — 

 " Mr. Andrews has found a pink form at Les Terres, and another 

 with dark red-purple flowers near the Gouff're ; these are probably 

 var. speciosa'' — I expect that true speciosa may also be met witli. 



