10 D. Pram — Some additional Fumariacese. [No. 1, 



Novicia? Tndicae X. Some additional Fumariacese. — By D. Prain. 

 [Read 4th December, 1895.] 



The remarks made at the commencement of the ninth contribution 

 of species new to the Indian Flora apply to the present one also. 



The Fumariacese form in reality only a suborder of Papaveraceee. 

 The limitation of genera here has given even greater trouble than in 

 the case of Papaveracese proper, while of late years sysfcematists have 

 had to contend with a complicated synonymy due to a well-meant but, the 

 writer believes, too rigid application of the rules regarding priority of 

 nomenclature. As in the present paper the writer adheres both to the 

 generic limits and the generic names of the Flora of British India, and 

 as no new genera belonging to the group have been reported from India, 

 no new generic key is required. 



1. HTPECOUM Tournef. 



Key to the Indian species. 



* Leaf segments linear ; flowers yellow ; fruits pendulous 



thickish ... ... ... ... ... 1. H. parviflorum. 



** Leaf segments oblong ; flowers pale purple or white with 



purple streaks, rarely yellow ; fruits ascending narrow ... 2. H. leptocarpum. 



1. Htpecoum parviflorum Kar. 8f Kir. Bull. Soc. Mosc. xv. 1-41 

 (1842). H. procumbens H. f. 8f T. Flor. Ind. 275 (1855) ; Flor. Brit. 

 Ind. i. 120 (1872) nee Linn. H. pendulum Boiss. Flor. Or. i. 125 (1867) 

 in parte, syn. H. caucasicum Koch exclus. vix Linn. 



Add to localities of F. B. I. :— N.-W. Himalaya ; G-ilgifc, Giles! 



Substitute for distrib. of F. B. I. : — Beluchistan, Afghanistan, 

 Western Persia, Turkestan, Yarkand, Soongaria. 



This species comes just within the western border of the Indian region. It 

 is a plant with precisely the habit of Hypecoum pendulum, with which species M. 

 Boissier has identified it but differs so markedly in certain respects that Sir 

 J. D. Hooker and Dr. Thomson, in both their treatises on the Indian species, have 

 preferred to include it in H. procumbens. It does not agree in habit with this latter 

 species nearly so well, but its fruits, being more decidedly dehiscent into joints than 

 those of true H. pendulum are, agree better with those of H. procumbens. It will be 

 noted that Hooker and Thomson include the plant in a species that has 3-lobed 

 outer petals, while Boissier includes it in one that has entire outer petals. Both 

 courses are justifiable because in the Indian plant this character breaks down ; 

 some of the specimens have entire, others have 3-lobed petals. The original 

 Soongarian specimens on which Karelin and Kirilow's species was founded have 

 entire outer petals as in H. pendulum ; the characters on which they have relied in 

 distinguishing their plant are the greater tendency to dehiscence of capsule seg- 



