V. FUMARIACEiE. 21 



genera 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 2. Corydalis. 



Some species of JDicentra or Dielytra, a North 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 small 

 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 much in the north. 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. F. capreolata, Linn. (F. pallidijlora, 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 Europe than in 

 Britain. 



b. F. officinalis, 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. micrantka, 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 



