SEA-HEATH TRIBE 97 



The Common Milkwort is the only British species;* but many veiy 

 handsome Polygalas are brought us from other lands, and some continue in 

 flower in the greenhouse throughout the winter. In Arabia, Brazil, China, 

 Java, and several countries, various species are highly prized. In our native 

 kind of Milkwort, the somewhat creamy substance which exists in the root 

 is bitter and slightly astringent ; but the Polygala venenata of Java is said to 

 possess very powerful properties. Commerson states that when he touched 

 a leaf of this plant with the end of one of his fingers, he was seized with long 

 and violent sneezings, and an oppressive faintness. His guide cautiously 

 avoided coming in contact with it, and the Javanese generally have great 

 dread of its poisonous effects. 



Order XII. FRANKENIACEiE.— SEA-HEATH TRIBE. 



Sepals 4 — 6, united into a furrowed tube ; petals of the same number as 

 the sepals, furnished with claws, having usually scales at the point of union 

 of the claw with the limb ; stamens equal in number to the petals ; ovary 1 ; 

 style very slender, 2 to 5-cleft ; capsule 1 -celled, 3 to 5-valved ; seeds very 

 small, attached to the edges of the valves. The flowers are solitary and 

 regular, arising from the forks of the branches or the axils of the upper 

 leaves. The leaves are small, oblong, and without stipules. 



Sea-Heath (FranMnia). — Style 3-cleft ; lobes oblong, with the stigma 

 on their inner side ; capsule 3 — 4-valved. Name from John Franken, who 

 firet enumerated the plants of Sweden, and who died in 1661. 



Sea-Heath (FranMnia). 

 1. Smooth Sea-Heath (F. Icevis). — Leaves narrow, rolled back at the 

 margin, smooth, fringed at the base. Plant perennial. We shall not easily 

 forget the appearance of the salt marsh on which for the first time we 

 discovered this rare flower. On many a marsh and chalky clift" had we long 

 searched in vain for the Sea-Heath, and the botanist will appreciate the 

 pleasure which the first sight of the plant aff"orded. It was a bright day, 

 early in September, when we visited Shellness, a sandy margin of the sea, 

 about four miles from Eamsgate, and the way to which lies over a wide, 

 grassy, marshy flat, drear enough in general appearance, but affording to the 

 botanist a wealth of plants peculiar to the saline soil. The sands were brown 

 with the dried remnants of the tall sea-side grasses ; and the sharp triangular 



* [Since the above lines weve written the plant has been more carefully worked out ; an<l 

 though a good deal of difference of opinion still prevails concerning them, several distinct 

 forms are recognised by some as species, by others as varieties or sub-species of F. vulgaris. 

 Tlieir differences may be briefly stated as under : — 



P. vulgaris, proper.^Stem rising obliquely with straight branches and slender lance- 

 shaped leaves, many flowers on each stem, the large sepals broader than the capsule 



P. oxyptera. — Branches wavy, leaves slender; large sepals shorter and narroiver than 

 the capsule. 



P. depressa. — Stems wavy, leaves nearly opposite and in two rows, the lower ones 

 spoon-shaped, flowers fewer. 



P. calcarea. — Branches numerous, rooting and giving rise to new plants ; radical leaves 

 forming a rosette, stem leaves oblong ; larger sepals broader and longer than capsule. 



P. amara. — Much smaller in all respects than the others ; leaves spoon-sha])ed, forming 

 a rosette ; flowering branches produced from the axils ; larger sepals narrower than 

 the capsule. — E. S.] 



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