XV. frankeniacej:. m 



Order XV. FRANKENlACEiE. 



Flowers regular, hermaphrodite. Calyx tubular, persistent, with 4, 5, or rarely 

 6 lobes, valvate in the bud, and as many prominent angles and furrows. Petals 

 as many, hypogynous, imbricate in the bud, free, the claws with an adnate plate 

 or appendage on the inner face, the lamina spreading. Stamens usually 6, some- 

 times 4 or 5 or indefinite, hypogynous, free or shortly united in a ring at the 

 base, filaments filiform or flattened ; anthers 2-celled, versatile. Ovary free, 

 sessile, 1-celled, with 8, rarely 2 or 4 parietal placentas, or very rarely a single 

 one. Style filiform, with as many branches as placentas, the' stigmas capitate or 

 oblique. Ovules several, or rarely solitary, to each placenta, attached to rather 

 long ascending funicles, amphitropous or nearly anatropOus, with an inferior 

 micropyle. Seeds ovoid or oblong, testa crustaeeous, the hilum almost 

 terminal. Embryo straight, in a mealy albumen, the radicle next the hilum, 

 shorter than or as long as the cotyledons. — Low herbs or undershrubs, much 

 branched and jointed at the nodes. Leaves opposite, small, without stipules, 

 often clustered in the axils. Flowers usually pink or purple, sessile in the forks 

 of the branches, forming a more or less dense, terminal, leafy cyme, sometimes 

 contracted into a globular head. 



The Order consists of a single genus, closely allied to the small group of Dianthew, amongst 

 Oaryophyllete, but distinguished by the parietal placentation of the ovary, and by the terminal 

 hilum in the seed. The species are chiefly maritime, and generally distributed over the tem- 

 perate regions of the globe, more especially of the northern hemisphere, less abundant within 

 the tropics. — Benth. 



1. FRANKENIA, Linn. 

 (After John Franken.) 

 Characters and distribution those of the Order. 



1. r. pauciflora (few flowers), DC. Prod. i. 350; Benth. Fl. Amtr. i. 151. 

 Shrubby and procumbent or almost erect at the base, with ascending, erect, or 

 divaricate dichotomous branches, nearly glabrous or hoary with a short down or 

 scaly pubescence, often very low and spreading, sometimes above a foot high, 

 attaining even 3ft. according to F. v. Mueller. Leaves opposite or the upper ones 

 in whorls of 4, oblong or linear, obtuse or rarely almost acute, the margins usually 

 revolute so as only to show a dorsal furrow, when very narrow above 3 lines long, 

 but usually much shorter, the very short sheathing petioles ciliate on the edge, 

 with smaller leaves often clustered in the axils. Flowers closely sessile in the 

 last forks, forming a more or less dense terminal leafy cyme and sometimes 

 unilaterally arranged along its branches owing to the abortion of one branch of 

 each fork. Calyx 3 to 4 lines, or rarely only 2J lines long. Petals with their 

 claws cohering in an angular tube, the longitudinal appendage not very prominent, 

 the lamina ibovate, entire or crenulate. Stamens 5 or 6, with their filaments 

 slightly dilated and usually cohering. Placentas 3 or rarely 2, with 2 to 4 ovules 

 to each.— Bot. Mag. t. 2896 ; Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. i. 40; F. scabra, Lindl. in 

 Mitch. Trop. Austr. 305. 



Var. serpyllifolia. Pubescent or hirsute. Leaves, especially the lower pnes short, from oblong 

 to broadly ovate, the margins often much less recurved than in the typical F. pauciflora. — F. 

 serpyllifolia, Lindl. in Mitch. Trop. Austr. 305. — Nive Biver, Mitchell; Murchisen River, 

 Drummond. Allied to this variety is the plant from Port Jackson, which De CandoUe, Prod. i. 

 349, referred with doubt to the F. pulverulenta, Linn. The specimens in the herbarium of the 

 Paris Museum have much the aspect of the latter species (very prostrale, with small broad flat 

 leaves, more petiolate than is usual in F. pauciflora), yet I think they may prove to be only on? 

 gf its nuruerpus varieties, very near tp tlje serpyllifolia.— J^enth, 



