44 THE LADIES' FLOWEB GARDEN. 
CHAPTER V. 
FRANCOACEiE. 
Essential Character. — Calyx deeply 4-cleft. Petals 4, insei-ted 
near the base of the calyx. Stamens sub-hypognyous, four times as 
numerous as the petals, alternately rudimentary. Ovary superior, 
with four cells, opposite the petals ; ovules numerous ; stigma 
4.Iobed, sessile; capsule membranous, 4-valved, with a loculicidal or 
septicidal dehiscence. Seeds numerous, minute, with a minute embryo 
in the base, of fleshy albumen. — (Lindl.) 
GENUS I. 
FRANCOA, Cav. THE FRANCOA. 
Lin. Syat. OCTANDEIA TETRAGYNIA. 
Generic CHAaicmi. — Calyx 4-parted. Petals 4. Stamens distinct 16, 8 of which are fertile ; anthers 2-celled. Stigma 4-lobed. 
Capsule tetragonal, 4-celled, — (G. Don.) 
Desckiption, &c. — All the kinds of Francoa are, properly speaking, perennials, but treated as the Hunne- 
mania, they make beautiful half-hardy annuals ; and they are more useful in this way than in any other, 
because, as perennials, they are too tender to live tlirough the winter in the open air without protection, and of 
course occasion considerable trouble and expense. Besides this, it has been found that they can only be propa- 
gated by seeds. 
1.- FRANCOA APPENDICULATA, Cav. THE COMMON FRANCOA. 
Engravings — Bot. Mag. t. 3178 ; Bot. Reg. t. 164S ; Brit. Flow. 
Gard. 2dSer. t. 151 ; and our/<;. 2 in Plate 7. 
Specific CHARACTEa. — Stemless ; leaves petiolate ; racemes loose, 
secund ; calycine segments lanceolate, acute ; lobes of stigma curvated , 
emarginate. — (G. Don.) 
Description, &c. — The plant is without a stem, properly so called, but it sends up its long flower-scapes 
firom a mass of large deep green leaves, shaped like those of the turnip. The flower stems or scapes rise nearly 
two feet high, and terminate in a spike of pale pink flowers, beautifully marked with spots of a deeper pink in 
the middle. This plant is a native of the island of San Carlos de Chiloe, in South America ; and it was intro- 
duced in 1830, by Mr. Anderson, who accompanied Captain King, as botanist, in his expedition to survey the 
coasts of South America. The plant had been before discovered by Don Luis Nee, naturalist to the Spanish 
expedition under Masalpina, and it was from dried specimens of it that Cavaniles founded the genus Francoa. 
It flowered for the first time in England in Mr. Low's nursery at Clapton. It is properly a perennial, but if 
cultivated as directed for the Hunnemania, it will make a beautiful border annual. When plants are reserved 
for seed, they should be kept in pots in a frame or greenhouse ; but the flowers are never so fine or so highly 
coloured on plants grown in pots, as on plants in a warm border in the open air. Seeds may be had at 
Charlwood's. 
