485 



£1)C €i'ca£ur» of 23 a tang, 



[fady 



an abundance of pinnate leaves, and the 

 little white pea-flowers are very numerous, 

 and disposed in dense racemes at the ends 

 of the twigs, succeeded by thin sabre- 

 shaped pods. The only other species, E. 

 spinosa, also a Mexican bush, has the ends 

 of its flower spikes hardened into spiny 

 points after the flowers have fallen. The 

 genus bears the name of C. W. Eysenhardt, 

 once professor in the university of Ko- 

 nigsberg. [A. A. B.] 



FAAM, or FAHAM. Angrcecum fragrans. 



FABA. The typical genus of the order 

 Fabacece or Leguminosce. It consists of an- 

 nual plants rising from two to four feet 

 high, having smooth quadrangular hollow 

 stems ; alternate pinnated leaves, formed 

 of from two to four pairs of entire oval leaf- 

 lets : and numerous large white or violet 

 highly fragrant blossoms, marked with dark 

 violet-coloured veins and blotches on the 

 petals. The seeds are produced within a 

 long green pod, or legume, and are round- 

 ish kidney-shaped, and more or less de- 

 pressed or flattened. 



The common Bean, F. vulgaris, is a hardy 

 annual, generally believed to be a native 

 of the shores of the Caspian Sea, as well as 

 of Egypt and other parts of the East. It is 

 a vegetable of very great antiquity, and isj 

 noticed in sacred history upwards of aj 

 thousand years before the Christian era 

 (2 Samuel xvii. 28). The earlier Greeks 

 and Athenians are stated to have cultivated 

 beans, and offered them as a sacrifice to 

 their gods— a practice which, according to 

 Pliny, was in later times followed by the 

 Romans. One of the noblest families of 

 ancient Rome— the Fabii— derived its name 

 from its ancestors having been celebrated 

 for the great success which attended their 

 culture of beans. Yet, strange to say, the 

 most superstitious notions were enter- 

 tained respecting their composition, and 

 fitness for being used as food for man, so 

 that some of the ancient philosophers en- 

 joined their followers to abstain from 

 eating them. They appear to have been 

 known in this country from time im- 

 memorial ; when, or how, they were in- 

 troduced we have no information ; it is, 

 however, generally supposed to have been 

 by the Romans. 



Among the industrious classes, beans 

 when full grown are a favourite vegetable, 

 and considered to be very nutritious to 

 persons with strong constitutions, but to 

 those of a delicate habit they are not to be 

 recommended unless in a very young state, 

 when, if properly dressed, they form an 

 excellent dish. There are several varieties 

 in cultivation, which chiefly differ from 

 one another in being tall or dwarf, early 

 or late ; or in the colour of the beans being 

 brownish red, or green. [W. B. B.] 



FABACEiE. The bean or leguminous 

 family, a natural order of calycifloral 

 dicotyledons, better known by the name 

 Leg u.mvaosce, under which head their pecu- 

 liar characteristics are described. The 

 plants are distinguished either by their pa- 



pilionaceous (pea-like) flowers, or by their 

 fruit being a legume : in other words, a pod 

 like that of the pea or bean. [J. H. BJ 



FABAGELLE. (Fr.) Zygophyllum. 



FABIAjSTA. A genus of South American 

 shrubs, belonging to the Solanacece. They 

 have alternate scattered or overlapping 

 leaves, and extra-axillary flower-stalks, 

 bearing a single flower, with a tubular five- 

 cleft calyx, andj funnel-like corolla, whose 

 tube is gradually dilated upwards, and 

 whose limb is divided into five short lobes. 

 The five stamens are included, and of un- 

 equal length ; the anthers open by slits ; 

 the capsule is two-celled, included within 

 the persistent calyx, and divided by two 

 valves. F. imbricata is a neat half-hardy 

 shrub, of fastigiate habit, with white 

 flowers, and has much of the general ap- 

 pearance of a heath. [M. T. M.] 



FABRICIA. A genus of Myrtacem, con- 

 sisting of New Holland shrubs, with broad 

 oblong glaucous dotted leaves, and solitary 

 axillary white or yellow flowers, with a 

 bell-shaped adherent calyx-tube, and a five- 

 cleft deciduous limb ; the five petals 

 roundish, attached to the throat of the 

 calyx ; numerous stamens, inserted with 

 the petals, and shorter than they ; and a 

 partly-adherent many-celled ovary, each 

 compartment containing several ovules 

 The fruit is a capsule opening at the top 

 through the backs of the valves. Two or 

 three species are in cultivation. [M. T. M.] 



FABRICOTTLIER, or FALABRIQUIER. 

 (Fr.) Celtis australis. 



FACELIS. A little annual composite 

 plant found in Chili, and also on the op- 

 posite side of the continent. It resembles 

 a cudweed in appearance, and differs 

 from its allies in having the tubular ray- 

 florets female and in many series, and 

 those of the disk fewer in number, more 

 slender, and perfect. The weak stems 

 seldom exceed eight inches high, and are 

 furnished with numerous narrow some- 

 what wedge-shaped leaves ; and the little 

 narrow flower-heads, containing pink-tip- 

 ped florets, are clustered at the ends of the 

 stem. The achenes are silky, and crowned 

 with a pappus of one series of feathery 

 hairs. [A. A. B.] 



FACIES. The general appearance of a 

 plant. 



FADYENIA. A curious West Indian 

 aspidioid fern, remarkable for having its 

 small sterile recumbent fronds broader 

 than the fertile, and attenuated and proli- 

 ferous at the point, the fertile being erect 

 and blunt, almost covered by the two rows 

 of sori. The only species is F. prolifera, a 

 dwarf plant but a few inches in stature, 

 both forms of fronds being simple. The 

 fronds have netted veins, and are remark- 

 able for the large size of the sori, and the 

 very much elongated sinus of the indu- 

 sium, which is reniform. 



The name Fadyenia has also been pro- 



