150 XV, FUANKENIA^CE.^. 



Petals as many, liypogyuous, imbricate in the bud, free, tlie claws with an 

 adnate plate or appendage on the inner face, the lamina spreading. Stamens 

 usually 6, sometimes 4 or 5 or indefinite, hypogynous, free or shortly united 

 in a ring at the base; filaments filiform or flattened; anthers 2 -celled, versa- 

 tile. Ovaiy free, sessile, 1-celled, with 3, rarely 2 or 4, parietal placentas, or 

 very rarely a single one. Style filiform, with as many branches as placentas, 

 the stigmas capitate or obliqne. Ovules several, or rarely solitary, to each 

 placenta, attached to rather long ascending funicles, amphitropous or nearly 

 anatropous, with an inferior micfepyle. Seeds ovoid or oblong, testa crus- 

 taceous, the hihma almost terminal. Embryo straight, in a mealy albumen, 

 the radicle next the hilum, shorter than, or as long as, the cotyledons.— Low 

 herbs or undershrubs, much branched and jointed at the nodes. Leaves op- 

 posite, small, without stipules, often clnstered in the axils. Mowers usually 

 ])iak or purple, sessile in the forks "of the branches, forming a more or less 

 dense, terminal, leafy cyme, sometimes contracted into a globular bead. 



The Order consists of a single geuus, closely allied to the small gronp of I)lanthe<^^ 

 amongst Caryopkylle^^j but disthignished by the parietal placentation of the ovary, and by 

 tbe terminal hiluni in the seed. The species are chiefly maritime, and geuerally distributed 

 over the temperate regions of the globe, more especially of the northern hemisphere, less 

 abundant within the tropics. 



1. FBANKENIA, Linn, 



% 



Characters and distribution tbose of the Order. 



The Australian species are all endemic, although the common one is closely allied to one 

 of those most widely spread in the northern hemisphere. 



Flowers in dense terminal heads. 



Floral leaves ovate-lanceolate, flat, several times broader than the 



linear-terete stem-leaves \. F. hracteata. 



Moral leaves linear-terete, like the stem-leaves 2. -F. glomerata. 



Flowers solitary, or in leafy terminal cymes. 



Leaves distinctly (but minutely) petiolale on the margin of the 

 sheath. 



Petals slightly cohering by their claws. Filaments slightly 

 dilated and often cohering in a tube. 

 Leaves much longer than their sheath- Calyx 2 to 3 lines . 3. F. paucifora. 

 Leaves scarcely longer than their sheath. Calyx about 1 line 4. F.parvu/a. 

 Petals quite free. Filaments shortly and broadly dilated at the 



base, free and narrow upwards 5. F. DrummondiL 



Leaves sessile, the dorsal fnriow continued to the base of the sheath. 



Leaves not produced below their insertion ...,.., 6. F. teirapeiaU. 

 Leaves produced at the base into a free, although closely 'ap- 



pressed appeudage '/^ ^^ ¥. punctata. 



{Frankeyiia cymhlfoUa, Hook , is Wihonia humills) 



I, F. bracteata, Turcz. in Ball Mosc. 1854, ii. 367. Stems, from a 

 woody base, erect, ascending, or decumbent, 3 to 6 in. long, glabrous or 

 slightly pubescent. Leaves all opposite, linear-terete, 2 to 4 lines long, smooth 

 and shilling, the margins so closely revolute as to conceal the hairy midi^r- 

 surface, showing only a dorsal furrow, distinctly petiolate on the edge of a 

 broad sheath, from which they early fall off, leaving a cluster of smaller similar 

 leaves aiising from within the sheath. Cymes of flowers contracted into dense 



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