534 



FRANKENIA-FRATERCULA. 



an early sort, and forces well. It requires an open 

 airy s-it nation. 



The liosebcrry is a variety of the preceding : very 

 fruitful, and grows to a large size. This also requires 

 rich loam and an open situation. 



The Chili bears a large and well-flavoured fruit, but 

 without much colour. It grows strong, and requires 

 ample space and good ground. 



The Keen's seedling bears a large showy fruit, and 

 is much esteemed in the market as well as at table. 



The Pine is a new variety, and much cultivated in 

 the neighbourhood of London. It requires to be 

 planted singly in very open order. A loamy soil 

 and open exposure is most suitable to both this and 

 the Imperial, a kindred variety also much esteemed. 



The Hautbois is an old sort, valued for its high and 

 peculiar musky flavour, and when well grown is cer- 

 tainly one of the best. There is a peculiarity in the 

 flowers of this sort unlike its congeners ; some of the 

 plants being destitute of female organs of course 

 barren. These barren plants, however, are not with- 

 out their use, for it is found, if duly interspersed with 

 the others which are defective in their stamens, good 

 and plentiful crops will be obtained. In making a 

 new plantation of the hautbois, both the male and 

 female plants should be carefully mixed in the rows 

 to insure success. Air and light are particularly 

 necessary to this sort ; and if the flowers and trusses 

 of fruit be tied up to little stakes, so that they may 

 be above the leaves, matures them perfectly. 



There are several other new varieties of strawberries 

 lately brought into cultivation ; such as Kny vett's New 

 Pine, Grove End Scarlet, Downtous, &c., all requiring 

 similar management. 



Soon as strawberries begin to be scented, they are 

 eagerly preyed on by snails and slugs, to the depre- 

 dations of which their position near the ground and 

 dense covert of foliage subject the fruit. To prevent 

 these animals harbouring about the plants, the beds 

 or rows should be two or three times, during the 

 months of March and April, well watered with lime 

 water. This will, probably, either kill or banish them 

 before the fruiting season. 



FRANKENIA (Linnaeus). A genus of creeping 

 perennials found in different parts of the world, two 

 of them being British. One is called sea heath, and 

 belongs to the sixth class of Linnaeus, and the natural 

 order to which they give, a title is described beneath. 



FRANKENIACE^E. A natural order, containing 

 only a few genera and species, chiefly hardy herbs, 



F. pulverulenta. 



nearly allied to Caryophyllcce, from which it is dis- 

 tinguished by the fruit not having a central separate 

 placenta, but bearing the seeds on the inner margin 



of the valve*. They are plants of no beauty, and 

 have no known medicinal qualities. 



F 11 ATE RCU LA Puffin. A genus of web-footed 

 birds, belonging to Cuvier's division of Brachypteres, 

 or short-winged birds ; and generally, though impro- 

 perly, included in the genus Alca, the penguin ; but 

 the characters are sufficiently different for warranting 

 the separation of this species from the others. 



The following are the generic characters : bill 

 shorter than the head, deeper than long, and much 

 compressed ; both mandibles arched, transversely 

 channelled, and notched towards the tip, the upper 

 sharp-ridged and elevated above the level of the 

 skull ; the nostrils lateral, marginal, linear, naked, 

 almost wholly concealed by a large naked membrane ; 

 legs short, placed far behind, furnished only with 

 three toes, all directed forwards and webbed, claws 

 much hooked ; wings short. 



In their general habit they bear some resemblance 

 both to the guillemots and the penguins ; but they 

 are less addicted to flying than the former, and, gene- 

 rally speaking, better winged than the latter, with 

 the exception perhaps of the common auk or razor- 

 bill. They, however, skirn along the surface of the 

 sea with considerable swiftness ; bnt they are bad 

 walkers, and not found inland, though of course they, 

 like other birds of the same class, resort to the shores 

 in the breeding time. 



They are all inhabitants of the colder seas of the 

 northern hemisphere ; there being at least three spe- 

 cies, one more common on the north of the Atlantic, 

 another on the north of the Pacific, and a third on 

 the shore intermediate between the two oceans, at 

 least in the American part. 



COMMON PUFFIN (F. arctica). This species is 

 well known upon many parts of the British coasts ; 

 and its singular appearance and loud screaming cry 

 have got it an endless number of local names, to 

 which, in the case of this bird, it is necessary to pay 

 some attention, although it is so constant to its type 

 that when it is fairly seen there is no chance of mis- 

 taking it. The following are the characters: the bill 

 compressed, two-edged, upper mandible with three 

 grooves, the under with two, orbits and temples 

 white, upper eyelids daggered or furnished with a 

 pointed callus. The mature male and female, both 

 in their winter and summer dress, have the crowri 

 of the head, all the upper parts, and a broad col- 

 lar, deep and glossy black ; the quill-feathers dusky 

 brown ; the breast, belly, and lower parts, pure 

 white. Length about twelve inches and a half, 

 extent of wing twenty-one inches, weight about 

 twelve ounces. The bill, which imparts such an 

 appearance of novelty to this bird, varies considerably 

 according to its age ; for in the first year it is small, 

 weak, destitute of any furrow, and dusky ; in the 

 second year it is larger, stronger, of a paler colour, 

 and discovers a faint vestige of a furrow near the 

 base ; but in the third and more advanced years it 

 exhibits great strength and vivid colours. The whole 

 plumage is remarkable for its closeness ; and the bird 

 is very compact in its form ; and when it sits on the 

 point of a rock, just above the surface of the water, 

 with its head in the position which heralds call " re- 

 gardant," it makes rather a handsome appearance, as 

 may be seen in the representation beneath. It does 

 not appear that these birds, notwithstanding the great 

 power of their bills, prey upon large fishes, though in 

 all probability they consume vast numbers of the 



