74 BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS 



Chelidonium 



0. majus (Common Celandine) occurs in waste places 

 and hedge-rows, but is a doubtful native. The edges 

 of the leaves sometimes produce buds. The plant is 

 protected by a foetid yellow sap. The seeds are black, 

 shining, and deejsly pitted in longitudinal rows. The 

 ridges, however, are rounded so that when jerked out of 

 the capsule they would offer but little resistance to the 

 air (see p. 65). 



In the Welsh Poppy {Meconopsis cambrica) the 

 black or deep brown seeds have a close network of rather 

 deep, generally pentagonal alveolae. In some foreign 

 species of the genus the seeds are covered with papillae. 



The seeds of Rcemeria hyhrida, a weed of cultivation 

 found in dry soil in the eastern counties, are deeply 

 pitted in lines following the curvature of the outline. 



m.p 



FUMAEIACE^] 

 FUMARIA 



F. officinalis. — The common Fumitory is a glabrous, 

 delicate green, trailing annual, with much-divided leaves 



and white or red 

 flowers in racemes 

 of 1-2 inches. The 

 sepals are small (Fig. 

 43), 2 in number, 

 lanceolate, and often 

 ^■P toothed. 1 The petals 



Fig. iZ.—Fumaria officinalis. Flower much en- are 4. The Uppcr 

 larged. s, sepal; u.jp, upper petal; l.p, lower „„„ ■ r^,.odnCpd into 

 petal; m.p, median petal. ^^^ ^^ piOQUCeU lUlO 



a short spur or 

 pouch behind, and in front forms a sort of hood over 

 the rest of the flower. The lower petal is narrow and 

 pointed. The two middle ones are united at the base, 



' Hildebrand, Pringsheim' s Jahrhuch fUr Wiss. BoianiJc, 1869-70. 



