FR A 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY 



FR A 



577 



upon this should be laid two inches of a loamy soil : when the 

 whole ha* laid two whole days to warm, the plants should 

 be taken out of the first hot-bed, and carefully turned out 

 of the pots, preserving all the earth to their roots, and 

 placed close together upon this new hot-bed, filling up 

 the vacuities between the balls with loamy earth : the 

 roots of the plant will sowi strike out into this fresh earth, 

 which will strengthen their flowers, and cause their fruit to 

 set in plenty ; and if proper care be taken to admit fresh air 

 to the plants, and supply them properly with water, they will 

 have plenty of ripe fruit in April, full two months before 

 their natural season. The Alpine Strawberry will supply 

 the table the whole summer, especially if the plants be 

 watered in dry seasons, the neglect of which frequently causes 

 like blossoms to fall ofF without producing fruit. Thus may 

 a succession of this delicious and salubrious fruit be obtained 

 from March and April, and even earlier, by means of a hot- 

 house forcing frame, hot walls, or hot-beds, and in the open 

 air from June to October and November, when the weather 

 is mild; for not only the Alpine, but the White Wood Straw- 

 berry, will continue bearing in tolerable abundance till the 

 nutumn frosts come on with some degree of severity, espe- 

 cially if the situation be warm, and the soil in which they 

 grow not too light. There are some persons so curious as to 

 raise the plants from seeds, by which they have greatly im- 

 proved some of the sorts : and Mr. Miller thinks, that if the 

 practice were more common, it would be found of singular 

 service, where the fairest of the fruit of each kind are chosen. 

 To obtain the seeds, the ripe fruit must be bruised in a vessel 

 of water, and the pulp carefully washed away, leaving the 

 seeds clean. They should then be gradually dried ; when 

 they may be sown in the spring on a border of rich light 

 earth, keeping them watered and free from weeds during 

 the summer. 



2. Fragaria Monophylla ; Simple-leaved Strawberry. Leaves 

 simple. The scspe or flowering-stem of this is longer than it 

 usually is in the common Wood Strawberry ; the petals are 

 smaller, and the calics gashed. This, however, is frequently 

 the case with the common wild sort in woods, and the others 

 are very inconsiderable differences, especially in a genus so 

 liable to variation as this. Other petty distinctions, such as 

 that the leaves are smaller in winter, and their ribs less 

 .branched, the runners more slender and productive, the fruit 

 more oblong or pyramidal, will not induce us to separate this 

 from the foregoing species. Even the remarkable difference 

 of simplicity in the leaves, cannot make us regard it as any 

 thing more than a singular variety ; for plants raised from the 

 runners will sometime* have ternate leaves, and .so also will 

 seedling plants. It agrees with its parent, the common Wood 

 Strawberry, in the time of flowering and fruiting ; nor do the 

 form, size, or flavour of the fruit, differ more from that than 

 might be expected to result from cultivation. For its propa- 

 gation and culture, see the first species. 



3. Fragaria Sterilis ; Barren Strawberry. Stem decum- 

 bent ; flowering-branches lax. The name oi'sterilis, or barren, 

 is not given to this species because it does not produce perfect 

 seed, for it certainly does, but because the receptacle is not 

 fleshy and eatable. To distinguish this from the esculent 

 Strawberry, with all its varieties, it is sufficient to observe, 

 that though the branches be trailing, yet they never creep or 

 throw out roots; that the leaves are ovate or obovate, bluntly 

 serrate, silky, and silvery, white undernea'.h, with very hairy 

 petioles; that the flower-stems are small, weak, and hairy, 

 sustaining one, or at most two flowers, with smaller and 

 whiter petals tlian the foregoing. The whole plant is smaller, 

 weaker, and more hairy; die petioles and leaflets extremely 



VOL. i. 49. 



hairy ; the latter on the flowering plants very small, about 

 half an inch in length, on the young plants twice as long ; 

 stem covered with brown scales; peduncles from an inch to 

 an inch and a half long, terminated by one flower, and having 

 a single leaf in the middle it, from the axil of which springs 

 another flower ; peduncles and calices tinged with red ; co- 

 rollas three, eighth of an inch in diameter; petals roundish, 

 frequently emarginate. This species is very dis'inct from the 

 other, and, according to the observation of Curtis, Leer, and 

 others, its fructification has a greater affinity with Potentilla, 

 between which genus and Fragaria, this seems to be a link. 

 The flowers appear earlier than in the other, namely, in March, 

 and it is common in woods and hedges, and on some heaths, 

 in Switzerland and Germany, as well as in Great Britain ; 

 found also in Japan. 



Frankenia ; a genus of the class Hexandria, order Mono- 

 gynia. GEMERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one-leafed, 

 subcylindric, ten-cornered, permanent; mouth five-toothed, 

 sharp, patulous. Corolla : petals five ; claws the length 

 ofthecalix; border flat, with roundish spreading laminas ; 

 nectary with a channelled acuminate claw inserted into the 

 claw of each petal. Stamina: filamenta six, length of the 

 calix ; antheree roundish, twin. Pistil: germen oblong, 

 superior ; style simple, length of the stamina ; stigmas three, 

 oblong, erect, obtuse. Pericarp : capsule oval, one-celled, 

 three-valved. Seeds: very many, ovate, very small. Observe. 

 Stamina five to ten ; fruit three-celled. ESSENTIAL CHA- 

 RACTER. Calix: five-cleft, funnel-form. Petals: five- 



Sttgmas: three. Capsule: one-celled, three-valved. The 



species are, 



1. Frankenia Lsevis; Smooth Frankenia, or Stxt Heath. 

 Leaves linear, crowded, ciliate at the base ; root perennial ; 

 stem and leaves thinly sprinkled with white globular parti- 

 cles ; flowers at the ramifications of the stem, and in the 

 middle of a bundle of leaves, solitary, sessile; calix with five, 

 six, or seven ribs, and as many teeth, but rarely more than 

 five; corolla purple; petals wedge-shaped, a little scolloped 

 at the end; nectary a yellow s<xle ; filamenta flat on one side, 

 convex on the other ; style deeply trifid. The flowers are 

 elegant in form and colour, like those of a little red pink or 

 campion. The stamina and pistil much resemble the Lychnis, 

 to which the plant is nearly allied, though so different in 

 habit. In the salt marshes near Leghorn, this plant is often 

 found. It has been found in England, at Burseldon-ferry, in 

 Hampshire; on the coasts of Essex, Sussex, and Kent, in 

 abundance, particularly in the islands of Shepey and Thanet; 

 nearThurrington in Essex; between Maldon and Goldhanger; 

 in Selsey island, Sussex; and near Portsmouth. It also 

 occurs at Lovingland, just over the water at Yarmouth, at Tid 

 Goat near Wisbeach ; and near Lynn in Norfolk. It flowers 

 in July and August. 



2. Frankenia Hirsuta. Stems hirsute ; flowers in terminat- 

 ing bundles ; leaves like those of Thyme, ciliate, especially 

 at the base ; flowers violet-coloured. Native of the south 01 

 France, Apulia, Crete, Siberia, and the Cape of Good Hope. 

 This appears to be but a variety of the former. 



li. Frankenia Pulverulenta; Dusty Frankenia, or Sea Heath. 

 Leaves obovate, retuse, mealy underneath ; stems lying flat, 

 slender, branching, with the knots about a finger's breadth 

 from each other ; leaves four at a joint, with very short hairs 

 underneath; flowers in the axils of the leaves, sessile; calix 

 tough, rigid, with five angles ; teeth upright. Annual. Ge- 

 rarde and Ray name it Valentia Knot-grass. It flowers in 

 July, and is a native of the south of France, Italy, and Spain. 

 It has also been found on the coasts between Bognor and 

 Brighthelmstone. 

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