FU MAR I A officinalis.
Common Fumitory.
DIA DELPHI A Hexandria.
G e n . C h a r . Cal. 2-leaved. Cor. ringent. Filaments 2,
membranaceous, each bearing 3 anthera.
S p e c . C h a r , Spike lax. Pods fing le-fe ed cd , globofe,
emarginate. Stem fpreading» Leaflets with dilated
fegments.
Sy n . Fumaria officinalis. L in n .Sp. PA 9 8 4 . Hudf.
309, a. With. 620. Relh. 26 7, a. Sibth. 2 1 7 .
Abbot. 15 2 . Cur.t. Land. fa ß . 2. /. 52 . Mart.
Fl. Ruß. t. 68. TVoodv. Med. Bot. t. 88. ‘
F . vulgaris. Rail Syn. 204.
" \ ER Y common in all kinds of cultivated ground, and about
hedges or banks, flowering all fummer long. ‘ ■
Root annual. Stem much branched, fpreading and almolt
proftrate, angular, leafy. Whole herb fmooth and glaucous.
Leaves doubly pinnate, their principal divifions generally alternate,
their leaflets wedge-fhaped, lobed, dilated. Spikes or
clufters oppofite to the leaves, Ample, many-flowered, lax.
Bradtese fmall. Flowers rofe-coloured, with a green keel to •
the upper and under petals, and all of them very deep red at
the fummit. Spur fliort, very blunt. Seed-veflel nearly globular,
but with a notch at the tip, fo as to be (as Mr. Curtis
well obferves) fomewhat inverfely heart-fhaped. It contains
a Angle large round feed.
This plant is called in fome old books Fumus terra (lmoke
of the earth), a name perhaps more intelligible to the fapient
writers than to,,us. The herb has been ufed as a purifier ot
the blood, and is faid, even by Dr. Cullen, to be peculiarly
fervieeable in feveral diforders of the fkin.
F. capreolata of Tinnitus is furely a diftinft Ipecies.^ We ,
hope to give a reprefentation of it at fome future period.-—
F .fpicata is Rill more diftina, though Linneeus once doubted
it, having a denfe fpike and a flat elliptical pod.