THE GENUS FUMARIA IN BRITAIN 59 



F. micrantha does not appear to have been recorded for the 

 Channel Islands, and it is rare in Ireland, being known only for 

 five vice-counties. 



In Great Britain it is almost exclusively a plant of cornfields 

 and other arable ground, and is recorded in Topographical Botany 

 and its Supplement for forty-two vice-counties, ranging from 

 Dorset and Kent to Orkney. From twenty-three of these vice- 

 counties I have myself seen specimens and I know of no sufficient 

 reason for doubting the correctness of any of the remainder. In 

 addition, specimens from 73, Kirkcudbright (Creetown, G. C. 

 Druce, as F. Borcei, in Herb. Mus. Brit.) and from 92, S. Aberdeen 

 (Braemar, Croall, in Herb. Kew) have come under my notice, thus 

 making the vice-comital total forty-four. 



It is noteworthy that this fumitory is characteristic both of 

 the chalk districts of the South of England, where it often accom- 

 panies F. Vaillantii and F. parviflora, and of the old Eed Sand- 

 stone regions on the Welsh border and especially on the eastern 

 side of Scotland, in which districts it is associated with the large- 

 flowered species. 



The form dubia I have only seen hitherto from one British 

 locality — Wareham, in Dorset. 



Subsection 6. Microsepalce or Parviflorce of Haussknecht. 



Peduncles short. Pedicels more or less thickened or slender, 

 erect-spreading in fruit. Bracts variable. Flowers very small, with 

 sepals relatively small or minute (obsolete in F. asepala Boiss.), 

 usually much toothed, always narrower than the corolla, and less 

 than one-fourth of its whole length. Fruit obtuse or acute, never 

 broader than long ; with an obscure fleshy neck when fresh, and 

 when dry, more or less rugose. 



The species placed in this subsection by Haussknecht, who 

 was well acquainted with the plants of this group in a living state, 

 are F. asepala Boiss., F. parviflora Lam., F. Vaillantii Lois., 

 F, Schleicheri Soy-Vill., F. Jankce, Haussk. and F. abyssinica 

 Hamm. Taken together, they form a well-marked series, charac- 

 terized especially by their small flowers and very small sepals, 

 and in a less degree, by their uniformly straight and erect- 

 spreading fruiting pedicels and rugose fruits. The only species 

 likely to be confounded with members of the other subsections are 

 F. Jankce, which is somewhat intermediate between F. Schleicheri 

 and F. rostellata, of the subsection Latisepalce, and F. abyssinica^ 

 which in foliage and flowers shows a resemblance to F. officinalis 

 var. densiflora, but has fruits not unlike those of F. parviflora. 



It is noteworthy that the headquarters of this subsection lie 

 distinctly more to the east than those of any other division of the 

 genus. The species seem to occur abundantly in Western Asia — 

 to which region F. asepala is apparently confined — and extend 

 to Manchuria, Turkestan, and India. F. abyssinica is entirely 

 an East African plant, its habitats ranging from Abyssinia to 

 Kilimandjaro. 



