THE GENUS FUMARIA IN BRITAIN 



39 



" aus England . . . habe ich noch keine Exemplare gesehen " is of 

 interest. 



As seen in Great Britain, F. Bastardi is a relatively uniform 

 plant, though, when weak or shade-grown, it may have short and 

 few-flowered racemes and fruits whose rugosity, even at maturity, 

 is obscure. In such instances the upper petal, owing to the im- 

 perfect development of the wings, may appear acute, and the 

 margins of the lower petal may be nearly obsolete. But, when 

 well-grown, the flowers may reach 12 mm. in length, with broad 

 wings extending to the apex of the upper petal, and clearly marked 

 though narrow spreading margins to the lower one. The broad 

 neck of the fruit, when fresh equalling or even overlapping the tip 

 of the pedicel — a feature which Jordan thought so peculiar — is 

 generally readily seen ; but there are gradations, and I have 

 specimens, otherwise typical, from Guernsey, where the base of 

 the fruit is considerably narrowed. 



The principal variation from the type occurs in a form which 

 is seemingly common in Ireland, and which I have also seen from 

 a few localities on the west side of Great Britain. This was pub- 

 lished as F. confusa Jord. var. hibernica Pugsley, iJi litteris, by 

 Mr. Praeger in the Irish Naturalist, xiv. p. 161 (1905), where its 

 most striking character only is mentioned — the dark-tipped corolla 

 simulating that of F. Borcei. The plant may be distinguished, 

 however, not only by the colour of the flowers, but by its lax habit 

 and spare foliage, the narrow wings of its outer petals, and the 

 tendency of its fruits to become more rounded-obtuse and more 

 narrowed below. Some of my specimens seem inseparable from 

 Spanish examples labelled F. vagans, except for their laxer habit and 

 larger, more obtuse fruits ; and others again approach the Corsican 

 and Itahan F. Gussonei. But, while varying, they agree exactly 

 with none of these named forms, and on the whole I think the 

 Irish and British plants should be maintained as a separate variety. 



In addition to this form I possess another, with smaller flowers 

 and fruit, collected by Mr. Druce in Jersey in 1907, which I am 

 unable to distinguish from the restricted F. Gussonei Boiss. That 

 this Mediterranean plant should occur as a native in the Channel 

 Islands is of course improbable, and it is possible that Mr. Druce's 

 specimen may be a hybrid or of hybrid origin (although I can see 

 no evidence of this) with all the features of Boissier's plant. But 

 the distribution of species of Fumaria — more or less weeds of 

 cultivation — is frequently difficult to explain, and their occasional 

 dispersal by human agency is well illustrated by the occurrence of 

 both F, capreolata and F. agraria in widely distant regions in 

 America ; and so I think the variety Gussonei, which appears 

 to grow in Jersey in company with ordinary F. Bastardi and 

 F. Borcei, must be admitted into the lists for that island. I believe 

 that specimens of this plant may in some cases have been distri- 

 buted in 1907 as F. Bastardi through the Exchange Club of the 

 British Isles. 



The synonymy, description, and distribution of these plants are 

 as follow : — • 



