82 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
[Frankeniacece. 
Anisadenia is to be admitted into this family, then the ordinal characters have to be 
greatly altered. 
FRANKENIA. 
Linne, Gen. Plant. 445.—Sea-heath. 
Sepals 4-7 ; connate. Petals appendiculate, long-unguiculate. Stamens double or loss than 
double the number of the petals, coherent towards the base. Style cleft into 2-5 stigmatose lobes. 
Capsule 2-5-valved. Placentae towards the base parietal. Seeds numerous or few, ascendent. Embryo 
somewhat mealy. 
Annual or perennial or suffruticose plants of saline inland or litoral tracts, represented in many 
parts of the warm temperate zone both in the northern and southern hemisphere, ranging as far north 
as Britain, occurring in Australia also within the tropics. Stems and branches jointed. Leaves small, 
opposite or verticillate, rarely alternate ; the younger ones frequently fasciculate. Flowers generally 
sessile, solitary, often forming a leafy cyme. Corolla usually pink.— Endl. Gen. 914; Schnizldn 
Analysen, t. 47. 
The genus Beatsonia has apparently no claim to be distinguished from Frankenia. Hypericopsis 
differs solely in stamens exceeding about fourfold the number of the petals. 
Frankenia lsevis, Linne, Spec. PI. 473; F. pauciflora, Cancl. Prodr. i. 350; Pot. Magaz. t. 2896; 
F. fruticulosa, Cand. Prodr. i. 350; Nees, in Lehn. PI. Preiss. i. 249; F. serpillifolia, Lindl. in Mitch. 
Trop. Austr. 305 ; F. scabra, Lindl . 1. c. 
Suffruticose, leaves opposite or quaternately-verticillate, at first fasciculate, oblong- or linear-lanceolate, 
rarely ovate, recurved or revolute at the margin; sepals generally 5, coherent to near the summit-, unguis of 
petals enclosed; stamens 5 or 6 or rarely 4; style 3- rarely 2-cleft; capsule few-seeded. 
On many parts of the Victorian coast in saline marshes; for instance, at Port Phillip, Port Albert- 
more common on salty or sandy depressions along the River Murray and its tributaries. Thence extending 
across the continent through the desert to near the Gulf of Carpentaria, to Sturt’s Creek, and along the 
western and southern coast of Australia; particularly abundant in the northern part of the Colony of South 
Australia; not yet found in Tasmania, where it however likely exists. Further distributed over South Europe, 
part of Asia, North and South Africa. 
A dwarf, wiry plant, attaining the height of 3 feet, producing many erect ascendent or recumbent 
stems. Branches terete, covered with short grey down or almost glabrous, thickened at the nodes. Leaves 
on father short or very short petioles, generally somewhat fleshy, blunt or acute, ty-O lines long, i-2 lines 
broad, often cdiate at the base; the floral leaves often very short. Flowers forming a leafy cyme or scattered, 
resembling those of some silenaceous plants. Pedicels none. Calyx 2i-4 lines long, cylindrical, consisting of 
generally 5 rarely 4-6 linear acute sepals, which whilst flower-bearing are to one-fourth or one-fifth of their 
length connate, by their mflexed margins channelled, thus forming a fiu-rowed tube, inside glabrous, in age 
somewhat more separating- from each other. Petals glabrous; their claws as long as the calyx and coherent 
into a narrow angular tube; their lamina white or more frequently pink, U-2± fines long, obovate- or 
truncate-cuneate, entire or crenulate in front, veined, tapering gradually into the unguis; appendage situated 
at t ie confluence of the lamina and claw, oblong- or narrow-linear, short, entire. Stamens 5-6, glabrous, 
little shorter than the petals, as far as enclosed within the tube of the corolla like the latter coherent into a 
i orm tube; the free parts of the filaments pink or pale, capillary, very tender, of unequal length, 1 line or 
ess long, their connate part towards the base winged by a very tender membrane. Anthers dorsifixed, about 
5 me long, formed by two narrow-ellipsoid longitudinally bursting parallel cells, red in youth. Pollen-grains 
ye ow, ellipsoid, bursting lengthwise. Style capillary, hardly longer than the stamens, glabrous, cleft to 
