FUMITORY, or Fumaria, Linn. (Germ. Erdrauch, Fr. Fumeterrfi), a genus of annual, rarely perennial, herbs of the natural order Fumariaaeeae, with stems usually branched and straggling, often climbing by means of their petioles; leaves alternate and decompound, with narrow segments; flowers in racemes, small, tubular, and purple or whitish, with purple tips; sepals 2, and deciduous; petals 4, and connivent, the upper one saccate or spurred at the base, the two inner cohering at the apex; stamens 6, and in two bundles opposite the outer petals; style deciduous; and capsule one-seeded and indehiscent. There are several British species of the genus. The Common Fumitory, F. officinalis (Germ. Taubenkropf), called by Shakespeare the “rank fumitory” or “fumiter” {Henry V., v. 2; Lear, iv. 4), is a plant indigenous to Europe, North Africa, and Asia, and is found as an introduced species in the United States. It has glaucous leaves and pale or dark rose-purple flowers, which bloom throughout the summer, and grows to a height of one or two feet. It is a common weed in corn-fields, and like other members of the genus flourishes best in rich cultivated ground. In past times it was in esteem for its reputed cholagogue and other medicinal properties, and in England, boiled in water, milk, or whey, it was used as a cosmetic. The herbage of F. officinalis and F. racemosa is used in China under the name of Tszefiιwa-ti-ting as an application for glandular swellings, carbuncles, and abscesses, and was formerly valued in jaundice, and in cases of accidental swallowing of the beard of grain (see F. Porter Smith, Cont rib. towards the Mat. Medica . . . of China, p. 99, 1871). The name fumitory, Latin fumus terrae, has been supposed to be derived from the fact that its juice ...