Chelidonium
(from Chelidonion, the Greek name used by Dioscorides, from chelidon, a swallow; it is said that the plant flowers at the time of the arrival of swallows, and dries up at their departure). Celandine; Swallow-wort. ORD. Papaveraceae. The only species is a perennial herb, abounding in an acrid saffron-coloured juice. It forms an excellent subject for naturalising in shrubberies, and in the wild garden. Increased by seeds, or by division of the roots. In a wild state, it is distributed over the temperate parts of Europe and Asia.
C. japonicum. See Stylophorum japonicum.
C. majus (large). fl. yellow, three to six together in a loose umbel; penduncles hairy, with a roundish bract at the base. Spring and summer. l. pinnate, thin; leaflets roundish, coarsely toothed. h. 1ft. to 2ft. Great Britain. (Sy. En. B. 67.) There is a pretty variety (laciniata) with segments of the leaves cut into many linear, acute, laciniated lobes, and the petals also cut; also a double-flowered form.