572 



FELICIA 



FERN 



DC. I- Blue Daisy. Blue Marguerite. Fig. 806. An 

 old greenhouse plant, 1-2 ft., with roundish ovate op- 

 posite [vs. and large, solitary heads of an exquisite 

 sky-blue. S.Afr. B.M.2i9 {us Vineraria amelloides). 

 A.F.13:657. P. R. 1:074. Gng. 6: 149.-There is a varie- 

 gated-lvd. var. (I.H. 8:290). Grown 

 easily from cuttings. Handled like a 

 Cineraria ; or, 'if grown from spring 

 cuttings for winter bloom, like a Chry- 

 santhemum, but with more heat in the 

 fall. An elegant pot-plant, and useful 

 for bedding in a pro- 

 tected place. L. H. B. 



FENDLfiRA (after 

 Augustus F e n d 1 e r, a 

 German naturalist, bo- 

 tanical explorer of New 

 Mexico). Sajrifrag(icece. 

 Low, spreading shrub, 



with small, opposite, 



greyish foliage, covered ^-^^V; 

 in June along the slen- 

 der, arching branches 

 with graceful white fls., 

 resembling in shape a 

 Maltese cross. Hardy in 

 New England, and grow- 

 ing best in a well- 

 drained, sandy or peaty 

 soil and sunny position. 

 A very handsome and 

 graceful plant for sunny 

 rockeries or rocky slopes. 

 Prop, by seeds or by 

 greenwood cuttings un- 

 der glass. One .species 

 from Texas to Mexico ; 

 allied to Philadelphus. 

 Pis. usually solitary at 

 the end of short lateral 

 branchlets ; calyx lobes 

 and petals 4; stamens 8: 

 ovary almost superior: 

 fr. a 4-celled, dehiscent 

 capsule, with flat, oblong 

 seeds. 



rupioola, Engelm. and Gr. To 4 ft. : Ivs. linear-lanceo- 

 late or linear-oblong, 3-nerved, revolute at the margin, 

 greyish tomentose beneath, K-1 in. long : fls. milky 

 white, 1 in. across; petals rhombic ovate, with distinct 

 claw, spreading ; stamens erect. June. G.F. 2:113. 

 R.H. 1891,p. 42. M.D.G. 1899:231. 



Alfred Rehder. 



FENNEL. Species ot Fmnlculiim (Umbelliferse), an- 

 nuals or treated as such, used as salad or condimental 

 herbs. Native of S. Europe. The common Fennel (F. 

 officinale, Linn.) is grown mostly for its young Ivs,, 

 which are used in flavoring, and also for its aromatic 

 seeds. Leaves sometimes e.aten raw. Sow seeds in late 

 fall to ensure early germination in spring, or sow in 

 early spring. In any good soil, the plant comes to ma- 

 turity quickly. 



The Florence or Sweet Fennel is F. diilce. DC. The 

 bases of the crowded leaf-stalks are much thickened, 

 making a bulb-like enlargement above the ground. This 

 thickened base has an oval form in cross-section. Earth- 

 ing-up blanches these thickened leaf-bases, and after 

 boiling they are fit for eating. A good Fennel bottom 

 may be 3 or 4 inches high. This is an Italian vegetable, 

 but is in the Amer. trade. Easily cultivated annual; ma- 

 tures quickly. Sow in spring, and later for succession. 



Giant Fennel is cult, for ornament, and is described 

 un ler Ferula. Fennel Flower is a name of Nigella. 



L. H. B. 



FENUGREEK {Trlqonella Fcenum-Grcecuni, literally 

 Greek hay). An annual legume indigenous to western 

 Asia, cultivated and widely naturalized in Mediterranean 

 countries; little grown in America. The seeds are 1 or 

 2 lines long, brownish yellow and marked with an ob- 

 lique furrow half their length. They emit a peculiar 

 odor, and contain starch, mucilage, a bitter extractive, a 



6. Blue Daisy - 

 amellodes (X 



yellow coloring matter, and 6 per cent of fixed and 

 volatile oils. As human food they are used in Egypt, 

 mixed with wheat flour, to make bread; in India, with 

 other condiments, to make curry powder; in Greece, 

 either boiled or raw, as an addition to honey; in many 

 oriental countries, to give plumpness to the female 

 human form. The plant is used as an esculent in Hin- 

 dostan ; as an early fodder in Egypt, Algiers, France, 

 and other countries bordering the Mediterranean. For- 

 merly the seed was valued in medicine ; now it is employed 

 only in the preparation of emollient cataplasms, enem- 

 ata, ointments and plasters, never internally. In vet- 

 erinary practice it is still esteemed for poultices, con- 

 dition powders, as a vehicle for drugs, and to diminish 

 the nauseating and griping effects of purgatives. It is 

 commonly used by hostlers to produce glossy coats upon 

 their horses and to give a temporary fire and vigor; by 

 stockmen to excite thirst and digestion in fattening ani- 

 mals ; by manufacturers of patent stock foods as a 

 flavoring ingredient. Fenugreek does not succeed upon 

 clays, sands, wet or sour soils. It yields most seed upon 

 Weil drained loams of medium texture and of moderate 

 fertility; most fodder upon rich lands. For seed pro- 

 duction, potash and phosphoric acid should be applied ; 

 for forage, nitrogenous manures. Deep plowing and 

 thorough harrowing are essential. Ten to 20 pounds of 

 seed should be used broadcast, or? to 10 pounds in drills 

 18 inches apart. Thinning when the plants are 2 or 3 

 inches tall, and clean culture throughout the season 

 until blossoming time, are necessary for a seed crop. 

 The crop may be mowed, dried and threshed four or five 

 months after seeding. An average yield should be about 

 950 pounds an acre. As a green manure. Fenugreek is 

 inferior to the clovers, vetches and other popular green 

 manures of this country. It possesses the power of ob- 

 taining nitrogen from the air by means of root tubercles. 

 M. G. Kains. 

 FENZLIA. See Gilia 



FEKDINANDA eminens. See Podach(eniu>ic. 



FERN, The plants included under this name com- 

 prise an entire order, made up of several distinct fami- 

 lies. They include plants varying in size from a hair- 

 like, creeping stem bearing a few simple, moss-like 

 leaves, to tall trees 40 or more feet in height, with a 

 caudex or trunk nearly a foot in diameter. Singularly 

 enough, the extremes in size are both found in tropical 

 regions where most of the species abound. Most of the 

 ordinary native species, as well as the great majority of 

 those in cultivation, consist of an erect underground 

 stem or rootstock with leaves, often called fronds, clus- 

 tered in dense crowns, or in the cases of creeping stems 

 with scattered leaves. The Fern plant represents the 

 asexual phase of growth (sporopjiyle), producing its 

 spores normally in spore cases {sjwrangia, Fig. 807), 

 which are borne in masses (sori. Fig, 808) on the back 

 or margin of the leaf, or in a few cases 

 are grouped in spikes or panicles, or in 

 rare cases spread in a layer over the en- 

 tire under surface of the leaf. The sexual 

 stage (gamefopJiyfe) develops from the 

 germinating spore, and consists of a 

 heart-shaped prothallus (Pig. 809), which 

 bears the sex -organs {archegones, female, 

 and anfherlds, male) on the under sur- 

 face. After fertilization in the archegone, 

 the egg develops directly into a young 

 Fern plant (Fig. 809). Many Ferns also 

 propagate vegetatively by runners or off- 

 sets, by bulblet-like buds, and in certain 

 species the tips of the leaves bend tiver 

 and take root, as in our common Walking- 

 leaf (Caraptosorus, which see). 



Great diversity has existed in the mat- 

 ter of the separation of the Ferns into "^^^^ ot a !• er: 

 genera. Hooker, relying mainly on arti- 

 ficial characters drawn largely from the sorus, recog- 

 nized only about 70 genera, many of them heteroge- 

 neous groups of plants with little resemblance in struc- 

 ture, habit or natural afSnities. John Smith, relying 

 on stem characters, Presl on variation in venation and 

 habit, F6e, Moore, and others, have recognized a much 



807. Sporan- 



