V. FUMARIACEZ. : 21 
eenera of that family in the irregular flowers and definite stamens, that 
it may be more convenient in this work to retain it as a distinct Order. 
Fruit a small roundish nut with one seed ; ; ; ; . 1. FUMARIA. 
Fruit an elongated pod with several seeds . : J . 2. CORYDALIS. 
Some species of Dicentra or DMelytra, a Noweh American and east 
Asiatic genus, are cultivated for the beauty of their flowers. 
I. FUMARIA. FUMITORY. 
One of the outer petals has a pouch or spur at its base. Fruit a smail 
roundish green 1-seeded nut, although the very young ovary has two 
ovules, of which only one remains at the time of flowering. 
A genus of few species, chiefly natives of the Mediterranean region, 
of which the common one is now widely spread over the globe. 
1. F. officinalis, Linn. (fig. 45). Common F.—A delicate pale green 
annual, perfectly glabrous, usually forming, when it commences flower- 
ing, a dense tuft of a few inches in height, but the stem often grows 
out from 1 to 3 feet; it is then generally weak or trailing, and some- 
times slightly climbing, supported by the twisted petioles. Leaves 
much divided into numerous segments, generally 3-lobed, the lobes 
varying in shape from narrow-linear to broadly lanceolate or oblong. 
Flowers in racemes of 1 to 2 inches, either terminal or opposite the 
leaves, dense at first, but often lengthening much as the flowering 
advances. Pedicels short, in the axil of a very small, scale-like, white 
or coloured bract. Sepals small, white, or coloured like the bracts, and 
often toothed. Petals oblong-linear, forming a tubular corolla, with 
dark-coloured tips, the spur at the base giving it the appearance of 
being attached laterally to the pedicel. Nut usually about a line in 
diameter, somewhat compressed laterally. 
Common in cultivated and waste places in Europe and Asia, dis- 
appearing at high northern latitudes, but occurring as a weed of culti- 
vation in many parts of the globe. Abundant in England and southern 
Scotland, but decreases muchinthenorth. Fl. all summer and autumn. 
It varies much in the form of the leaf-segments, in the size and colour of 
the flower, white or red, in the size and shape of the sepals, and in the 
shape of the nuts ; and several species are generally admitted, but they 
run so much one into another, that there is every probability of their 
being mere varieties. The most prominent British forms are— 
a. L. capreolata, Linn, (Ff. pallidifora, F. confusa, and F. muralis, 
of authors). A luxuriant climber, attaining a length of 2 or more 
feet ; leaf-segments broad; flowers 4 or 5 lines long, white or pale 
red, the sepals rather large, the nuts nearly orbicular. About hedges and 
walls, more common and more marked in southern Hurope than in 
Britain. 
_b. F. officonalis, Linn. Leaf segments neither very broad nor very 
narrow ; flowers red, about 3 lines long; nuts very blunt, or depressed at 
the top, rather broader than long. Connected both with the preceding 
and the following by numerous intermediates, some of which are con- 
sidered as species under the names of F. media, F. agraria, &c. 
c. F. densiflora, DC. (F. micrantha, Lag.), Leaf-segments usually 
small; flowers smaller, and in closer racemes than in the common 
variety, the sepals remarkably large in proportion to the corolla; nuts - 
