CLASS VI. ORDER I.] F1UNKENIA. 



fungus, (Ecidum Berberides, Pers., that it is supposed to be the cause 

 of its blighting wheat. Not unfrequently may be found also infesting 

 the leaves of the Barbery another minute fungus, which spreads over 

 their surface like a pellicle of woolly filaments, of a grey colour, 

 Erysiphe pencillata ; it is an extremely interesting and curiously 

 constructed species, and upon the bark of the stems and branches may 

 be observed very frequently other species of minute fungi. 



Nearly allied to this genus is that of Mahonia, consisting of elegant 

 low hardy shrubs, with compound evergreen leaves, and mostly bearing 

 a profusion of yellow dowers, rendering them great favourites in orna- 

 mental pleasure grounds and cold borders. They are found for the 

 most part in the Eastern part of North America, or, according to De 

 Candolle, in both hemispheres between 25 and 45 degrees latitude. 



GENUS II. FRAN KEN'IA. LINN. Sea-Heath. 

 Nat. Ord. FRANKS N'IACE^E. ST. HILDIRE. 



GEN. CHAR. Calyx tubular, four or h've-cleft. Petals five. Stigmas 

 three-cleft. Capsule of one cell, from two to four valved. Seeds 

 minute, attached to the margin of the valves. Named in honour 

 ot John Franken, a Swedish Botanist, and Professor of Medicine 

 atUpsal, who died in 1661.* 



1. F. lae'vis, Linn. (Fig. 526.) Smooth Sea Heath. Leaves in 

 whorled clusters, linear, smooth, the margins revolute, ciliated at the 

 base. 



English Botany, t. 205. English Flora, vol. ii. p. 186. Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 157. lindley, Synopsis, p. 39. 



Root woody, fibrous. Stems rqund, smooth, wiry, procumbent, and 

 spreading around the branches, numerous, opposite, axillary, round, 

 smooth, or downy, especially towards the extremities. Leaves nume- 

 rous, in crowded whorled panicles, linear, ovate, somewhat fleshy, 

 smooth, the margins rolled back and glaucous beneath, the footstalk 

 broad, membranous, the two lower oues opposite, united and forming a 

 fringed sheath or cup around the stem, and from the bosom of which 

 arise the branches and fascicles of leaves and flowers. Inflorescence 



"This genus," it is stated in English Botany, "was first determined by 

 Micheli, who named it Franca, after hi friend Franchi, a Florentine physician 

 and botanist, born at Lucca, who had a principal hand in founding the Bota- 

 nical Society of Florence. It should seem that Linnaeus did not think this 

 gentleman's claims to such an honour sufficient, and, therefore, changed tl 

 name to Frankenia, to perpetuate the memory of Frankenius, Professor at 

 Upsal, in the middle of the last century, author of a not ery useful catalogue of 

 plants, called Speculum Botanicum, of which there are two ed.tions, b( 

 present tery rare." 



