HEXANDRIA-MONOGYNIA. Frankenia. 185 



Oxyacantha. Fuchs. Hist. 542. f. 543. 



Crespinus. Matth. f'algr. v. 1. 150.^'. 



In hedges, and on bushy calcareous hills. 



Shrub. May, June. 



A bushy smooth shrub, 2 or 3 feet high in a wild state, much taller 

 in gardens. Branches flexible, alternate, angular, with a pale 

 brown bark. Leaves deciduous, stalked, in tufts from lateral 

 buds ; on the young branches alternate ) all somewhat obovate, 

 more or less pointed, finely fringed. Thorns at the base of each 

 leaf-bud, three-cleft, spreading, sharp ; channelled underneath. 

 Clusters solitary from the centre of each bud, stalked, simple, 

 many-flowered, pendulous, longer than the leaves. Fl. bright 

 yellow, with red glands ; their scent faint and oppressive. Ber- 

 ries scarlet, powerfully but very gratefully acid ; reported to be 

 sometimes yellow, sometimes white, purple, or black. There is 

 a cultivated variety without seeds. 



The stamens have been found irritable in one small spot near the 

 base, on the inner side, only, as explained by the writer of this 

 in Phil. Trans, v. 78. 158, and in a vol. of Tracts, above quoted. 

 Many botanists mistake this phasnomenon. Jussieu speaks of 

 the Jilaments as elastic, and embraced for a while by the glands ; 

 neither of which has any foundation. They contract by irrita- 

 bility, like the muscles of animals, and thus throw the pollen on 

 the stigma. Dr. Darwin, on my authority, attributes something 

 of sympathy to the filaments, which does not exist, nor have I 

 indicated any thing of that nature. 



Many agriculturists charge the Barberry-bush with causing bar- 

 renness, blight, or mildew, I cannot precisely say which, in 

 wheat growing in its neighbourhood ; which others as positively 

 deny. Many highly respectable authorities, on each side, render 

 me unable to form an opinion j nor am I aware of any hypothe- 

 sis that could explain the fact. 



201. FRANKENIA. Sea-heath. 



Linn. Gen. 176. Juss. 303. Fl.Br.387. Lam. t. 262. 

 Franca. Mich. Gen. 23. t. 22. 



Nat. Ord. Calycanthemce. Linn. 17. Akin to Caryophyllea. 

 Juss. 82. 



Cal. inferior, of 1 leaf, somewhat cylindrical, with five an- 

 gles, permanent ; the border with 5 acute spreading teeth. 

 Pet. 5 ; their claws the length of the calyx ; limb of each 

 obovate, or wedge-shaped, spreading. Ned. a channelled 

 membrane, on the inner side of each claw. Filam. 6, the 

 length of the calyx, thread-shaped, nearly equal. Anth. 

 of 2 rounded lobes. Germ, superior, ovate-oblong, with 

 3 furrows. Style erect, cylindrical, nearly equal to the 



