St. Hil. ORDER [family FRANKENIACEÆ]

Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora Capensis
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora Capensis, Vol 1, page 113, (1894) Author: (By W. H. HARVEY).
Names
St. Hil. ORDER [family FRANKENIACEÆ]
St. Hil. Frankeniaceæ [family ], —DC. Prod. 1. p. 349. Endl. Gen. No. cxcii. Lindl. Veg. Kingd. No. cxvii.
Information
Flowers regular. Calyx tubular, 4–5 toothed, ribbed, persistent, hardening after flowering. Petals 4–5, hypogynous, with long claws, twisted-imbricate in æstivation, deciduous. Stamens generally 6, or 5, hypogynous, alternating with the petals; filaments subulate; anthers extrorse, versatile. Ovary free, unilocular, with 3–4 parietal placentæ and numerous ovules; style single, filiform. Capsule enclosed in the calyx, many seeded, splitting. Seeds minute, albuminous, with an axile embryo. Small, heathlike perennials or undershrubs, inhabiting salt-marshes or sea coasts. Stems much branched, jointed and knotted; leaves opposite, alternate or whorled, or densely tufted, very entire, and often linear, with revolute margins. Flowers solitary or cymose, sessile, fugacious, pink or purple.
Range
A small Order, of which less than thirty species are known, but these are scattered along the shores of the four quarters of the world.
Notes
They resemble in habit some of the Caryophylleæ, from which their placentation and the structure of their seeds separate them. In foliage they look like small heaths; whence the English name “Sea-heath.” Their true affinities are not very clearly ascertained, but they are generally considered to be related to Violaceæ and Turneraceæ. Their properties and uses are unimportant. Beatsonia portulacifolia, a sea coast plant of St. Helena, is said to have been once used in that island as a substitute for Tea.
St. Hil. ORDER [family FRANKENIACEÆ]
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