HEXANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. Frankenia. 



34 J 



FRANKENIA. Calyx 5-cleft, funnel-shaped : pe- 



tals 5 : summit with 3 divisions : 

 celled, 3-valved. 



caps 



1- 



V 



F. Leaves strap-shaped, crowded, fringed at the base. 



E. hot. 205-Mkhel. 22. l-Lob. adv. 180. 3-Ger. em. 566. 3 

 ~Park. 1680. 6-Barr. 7U~J. B. m. 70S. 2-Jfcf. 10. 11. 



A shrub with numerous branched, trailing stems. Leaves 

 fleshy, egg-shaped, but the edges being rolled in they appear 

 almost cylindrical with a groove underneath, flatted at the base. 



ke'vis. 



- 



Calyx with 5 to 7 ribs, and as 



y teeth. 



Petals wedge- 



shaped, a little scolloped at the end. Nectary a fleshy scale, 

 fixed to the base of each petal. Style cloven half way down into 

 3 segments. Bloss. pinky red. 



Smooth Frankiyort* Salt marshes in a muddy soil. Loving- 

 land, near .Yarmouth. Isles of Sheppey and Thanet ; Essex, Sus- 

 sex, and Kent, common. [Near Yarmouth. Mr. Crowe.] 



P. July, Aug. 



F. Leaves inversely egg-shaped, dented at the end, dusted pulverulen'ta, 



underneath. 



■ 



Clus. ii. 1 S6. 2~Dod. 376-Ger. em. 566. I-Zanon. 79-loB, 

 adv. 1J)6. 2. «- 



Stems lying flat, slender, branching ; knots about a finger's 

 breadth from each other. Leaves 4- at a joint, hoary underneath. 

 Flowers in the bosom of the leaves. Mont, in Zanon. Leaves n 



with very short hairs underneath, edges not rolled in, on short 

 leaf-stalks. Dr. Stokes. 



sugar they form a most agreeable rob or jelly. They are used likewise as 

 a dry sweetmeat and in sugar-plumbs. An infusion of the bark in white 

 wine is purgative. The roots boiled in lye, dye wool yellow. In Poland 

 they dye leather of a most beautiful yellow with the bark of the root. 

 The inner bark of the stems dyes linen of a fine yellow, with the assist- 

 ance of alum. — This shrub 'should never be permitted to grow in corn 

 lands, for the ears of wheat that grow near it never fill, and its influence 

 in this respect has been known to extend as far as 3 or 4 hundred yards 

 across a field. This very extraordinary fact merits further investigation, 

 for, though credited in France as well as in England, Mr Broussonet 

 assured Dr. Smith from his own observations, that it was totally void of 

 foundation. See E. bot. p. 49. What then could have given rise to 

 such an opinion, so confidently asserted and so widely diffused ? The first 

 information I had upon the subject, was from an excellent botanist, a 

 scrupulous observer of nature, whose accuracy could hardJy be ques- 

 tioned, and of whose veracity I could not entertain a doubt. The year 

 following I examined some wheat sown round a Barberry bush in this 

 gentleman's garden, and found the greater part of the ears abortive 

 Knowing a very sensible farmer in whose hedge rows the Barberry was a 

 common plant, I enquired if he had ever observed the corn near those 

 hedges to be any how particularly eifected. His reply constitutes the 

 tost part of this paragraph. 



