42 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



Stamens usually 6 (sometimes 4, 5, or even more), hypogynous ; 

 tiic filaments broad, subulate, free, or united at the base into 

 an extremely short ring; anthers versatile, 2-celled, dehiscing 

 longitudinally. Ovary free, sessile, 1-celled, with 3 (sometimes 

 2 or 4) parietal placentae. Style filiform, divided at the apex 

 into as many branches as there are placentae ; stigmas on the 

 inside of the branches. Ovules indefinite, sub-anatropous, with a 

 long funiculus. Capsule included within the persistent calyx, 

 l-ccUed, dehiscing loculicidally into as many valves as there are 

 placentae. Seeds ovoid or oblong-ovoid, with a hard rough testa. 

 Embryo in the axis of farinaceous albumen, with the radicle near 

 the hilum. 



GENUS I.—F RANKENIA. Linn. 



The only genus. Character the same as that of the Order. 

 Small maritime plants, with heath-like leaves, and flowers 

 resembling those of a small pink. Stems and leaves often reddish. 



This genus was named in honour of John Frankenius, Professor of Botany at 

 Upsal, who first enumerated the plants of Sweden in " Speculum Botanicon," 1638. 



SPECIES I.— P RANKENIA LMYIS. linn. 

 Plate CXC. 



Stem prostrate, diffusely branched. Leaves sub-cylindrical, 

 with the edges revolute. Plant glabrous (or the stem finely hairy), 

 with the leaves ciliated at the base. Flowers solitary, from the 

 forks of the stem, or in the axils of the leaves ; more rarely terminal. 



In salt marshes, by the sides of brackish ditches and on chalk 

 clifl's. Kot uncommon in the South-East of England, where it 

 occurs in the counties of Hants, Sussex, Kent, Essex, Suffolk, and 

 Korfolk. It was formerly found near Wisbech, in Cambridgeshire ; 

 and it has also been found in the county of Durham, but only on 

 ballast-hills. 



England. Perennial (almost a shrub). Summer and Autumn. 



Rootstock woody, dividing into numerous stems, which are 

 prostrate, much branched, wiry, almost woody, 3 inches to 2 feet 

 long, thickly clothed towards the extremity of the branches with 

 leaves, which are in opposite pairs, or in whorls of 4, sessile, with 

 dilated connate bases, and fascicles of secondary leaves or short leafy 

 branches in the axils. Leaves oblong (but the two sides are so 

 much rolled back, that the shape of tlie leaf becomes narrowly 

 cyliudiical), flattened above, 1% to ^ inch long. Flowers sessile, 



