FIL 



OR. BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



FLA 



571 



in the centre, sprinkled with very short glandular hairs, and 

 crowned with a capillary down ; those of the florets in the 

 circumference without down. The smallness of the heads or 

 clusters, and the few flowers which compose them, readily 

 distinguish this species from the second. Native of most 

 parts of Europe, in sandy pastures, especially in high 

 grounds; also on walls, and other dry barren places. It 

 flowers in July and August. 



5. Filago Gallica; Grass-leaved Cudweed. Stem dicho- 

 tomous, erect; flowers subulate, axillary; leaves filiform; 

 root annual, often very long. The whole plant downy, but 

 the down shorter than in the second and fourth species, and 

 of a silvery white; leaves about an inch long 1 , half stem- 

 clasping, awl-shaped, subtomentose, yet smooth, and not hir- 

 sute. Native of France, Switzerland, Germany, and Eng- 

 land, in gravelly and sandy soils, flowering in July and 

 August. With us it was first observed near Castle-Heven- 

 ingham in Essex, and since on heaths in Derbyshire. 



6'. Filago Arvensis ; Corn Cudweed. Stem panicled ; 

 flowers conical, lateral ; root annual. The whole plant very 

 woolly, insomuch that the heads of the flowers are in a man- 

 ner buried : stem erect, a foot high or more, branched only 

 at the top; leaves linear-lanceolate, two lines broad, five to 

 seven long, and quite entire. The flowers are female in the 

 circumference, androgynous in the centre, very small, and 

 whitish. Native of Sweden, Germany, France, Switzerland, 

 and Carniola, in sandy soils, flowering in July and August. 



7. Filago Leontopodium ; Lions-foot Cudweed. Stem very 

 simple ; head of flowers terminating, radiated with very hir- 

 sute bractes. This plant is about six inches high, hoary all 

 over, and terminated by an elegant lanuginous star, formed 

 of oblong spreading leaflets of unequal lengths. In the 

 centre of this is a head of flowers, which are hermaphrodite ; 

 the corolla yellow, and five-cleft; the antheree acuminate; 

 the style whitish, the germen streaked, smooth, dilated at 

 the end, and crowned with little bristles, which, when viewed 

 with a magnifier, appear feathered ; the stigma longer than 

 the anther*. Round this principal head, on radiating very 

 lanuginous bractes, sit other small heads, in number as far 

 as seven, in which some of the flowers are female, small, 

 tour-cleft, with a long style, and a bifid stigma; others are 

 incomplete, yellow, and destitute of genuine stamina, stvle, 

 and germen. The middle head, therefore, is that of a Gna- 

 phaiium, and the side ones are those of a Filago. Peren- 

 nial : flowering in June and July. Native of the mountains 

 of Germany, Dauphiny, Switzerland, the Valais, Austria, Ca- 

 rinthia, and Carniola. There is a variety which differs from 

 the other, 1. in having a slender root, and short leaves; 

 whereas that has a large root, and oblong leaves : 2. in hav- 

 ing flowers of a very dark brown violet-colour; whereas in 

 the other they are pale yellow. This is a native of Italy, as 

 on Monte Baldo near Verona, and of Germany. 



Filbert. See Coryhts. 



Filix, or Fern. The plants that pass under this general 

 denomination, constitute the first order of the class Crypto- 

 gamia, in the system of Linneus, called Cryptogamia Filices. 

 The fructification in this natural order differs essentially from 

 all others, at least in its situation ; being generally disposed, 

 either in spots orlines on the under surface of the fronds or 

 leaves. There being no certain distinctions in the fructifica- 

 tions sufficient to establish the genera, and the parts being 

 tw small to be observed without the assistance of powerful 

 magnifiers, the genera are chiefly distinguished by the dis- 

 positions of the seeds under their covers. The general 

 structure of the fructification on this order is the follow- 

 ing. The calix is a scale springing out of the leaf, opening 



on one side. Under this scale, commonly supported by little 

 footstalks, but sometimes sessile, are globules for the most 

 part encompassed by an elastic ring; these burst with vio- 

 lence, and scatter a powder, which is supposed to be the seed. 

 These globules or seed-vessels are covered by a very fine, 

 thin, semitransparent skin, which bursts open before the seeds 

 are ripe : the ring or cord endeavours to become straight, and 

 by its elasticity tears open the capsule, which then forms two 

 hemispherical cups like those of Anagallis. This curious 

 mechanism may be observed by the assistance of a good 

 single microscope, with a reflecting speculum, during the 

 months of September and October, in Pteris Aquilina, or 

 common Brakes, and Asplenium Scolopendrium, or Hart's- 

 tongue. The powder which is dispersed in this operation is 

 so minute, as hardly to be visible to the naked eye. That it 

 is the seed, has been proved by actually raising plants from 

 that of the Hart's-tougue by Morison ; and lately in the most 

 satisfactory manner by Mr. John Lindsay, surgeon in Jamaica, 

 from Polypodium Lyncopodioides. Hedwig thinks that he has 

 detected male flowers or antherse, either sessile, or else on a 

 very short filamentnm, scattered over the back of the frond, 

 of an ovate or subglobular form. From this singularity of 

 the fructification being on the back or lower side of the leaf, 

 was named the order in which they ranged the Ferns Epi- 

 phyUospermce and Dorsifera-. Since the late discoveries of 

 Hedwig and others, Equisetum, Salvinia, Marsilea, Pilularia, 

 Isoetes, which stood among the Ferns, together with Lyco- 

 podium and Porella, which were placed in the order of Musci 

 by Linneus, have been united to form a new order, entitled 

 Miscellanea, which now stands, first of the class Cryptogamia 

 in Linneus's Genera Plantarum, as published by Schreber. 

 The uses of the Ferns are little known. Few of them are 

 esculent. They have a heavy disagreeable smell. In large 

 doses they destroy worms, and some of them are purgative. 

 The ashes produced by a slow incineration of the green 

 plants, contain a considerable portion of the vegetable 

 alkali, and are generally sold under the name of ash-balls, 

 to make lye for washing linen. Common Brakes cut down, 

 when fully grown and dried, make a very good litter; and 

 this, with some others, forms a thatch more durable than 

 straw. South America and the West Indies furnish abun- 

 dance of species, many of which grow to a great size, and 

 others are very ornamental plants in our hot-houses. For par- 

 ticulars concerning the genera and species of this order, see 

 Acrostichwn, Adiantum, Asplenium, Blcclinum, Ctenopteris, 

 Hemionitis, Lonckitis, Maruttia, Memscium, Onoclea, Ophio- 

 glossHiit, Osmunda, Polypodium, Pteris, Trichomanes. 



Finochio. See Anetltmit. 



Fir Tree. See Pinus. 



Fissidcns ; a genus comprehending several species of 

 Moss, belonging to Linneus's genera of Alnium, Bryum, 

 and Hypnum. 



Fitt-weed. See Eryvgimtn, 



Flacourtia; a genus of the class Dioecia, order Poly- 

 andria. GENERIC CHARACTER. Male. Calix : perianth 

 one-leafed, five-parted ; parts roundish, obtuse, almost equal 

 from spreading erect. Corolla : none. Stamina : filamcnta 

 numerous, (fifty to a hundred,) longer than the calix, and 

 fastened to its thickened bottom, spreading, capillary ; 

 antherse roundish. Pistil: the rudiment of a germen and 

 stigma at most. Female. Calix : perianth five-leaved ; leaf- 

 lets roundish, erect, lying over each other nt the edge, blunt. 

 Corolla: none. Pistil: germen superior, ovate, large; style 

 none ; stigma flat, stellate, with rays from five to nine. Peri- 

 carp : berry globular, fleshy, umbilicate with the stigma, 

 many-celled. Seeds : in pairs, obovate, compressed, obscurely 



