Home for the Aged. South Framingham is the principal business part of the town, and has manufactures of boots and shoes, chairs, rubber and straw goods; and Saxonville has extensive woolen cloth and yarn mills. The government is administered by town meetings. Framingham was settled about 1647, was known as Danforth's Plantation until 1700, when it was incorporated under its present name (from Framingham, England). Population, in 1890, 9239; in 1900, 11,302. Consult: Barry, History of Framingham (Boston, 1847); Temple, History of Framingham (Framingham, 1887).

FRA MOREALE, mō'râ-ä'lå. See MONTREAL D'ALBANO.

FRANC, Fr. pron. fränk (Fr., derived from the device, Francorum Rex, King of the Franks, struck by King John II. on the coin in 1360). The unit of the monetary system of France and of the States of the Latin Monetary UnionBelgium, Switzerland, Italy, and Greece. At the present time the franc is in fact the twentieth part of the twenty-franc gold piece, or 2902 grams of pure gold, equivalent in United States money to 19.3 cents. When the present monetary notation was adopted in France, in 1795, supplanting the former livre tournois, the frane was a silver coin, nine-tenths fine, weighing five grams. Such coins ceased after 1865, when the franc coin was made a token, 835 fine, without change of weight. As a silver unit it still remained in its multiple the five-franc piece, ninetenths fine, weighing 25 grams. In 1876 the coinage of the five-franc piece was discontinued. Silver coins of 5, 2, and 1 franc, and 1⁄2 franc, are still in general use; but they are all, strictly speaking, tokens, gold having become the standard, and being represented in the coinage by pieces of 10 francs and 20 francs. The franc is theoretically divided into 100 centimes; but as the smallest coin in France is the five-centime piece, the old appellation of 20 sous to a franc (or livre) is still in frequent use. In Italy the franc is

called lira, and in Greece drachma.

In other countries not in treaty relations with France, the same unit prevails; in Finland, the mare; in Spain, the peseta; in Rumania, the lei; in Vene

zuela, the bolivar. See LATIN UNION.

FRANC, MARTIN LE (1410-61). A French poet, born in Normandy. He became secretary to the Duke of Savoy, afterwards Pope Felix V., and through him obtained various lucrative appointments, such as secretary to Nicholas V. Despite its accumulation of tedious detail, his long poem, Le champion des dames (1530), is now highly valued on account of its contemporary references and its vivid local color of the fifteenth century; and the same may be said of his prose work, L'estrif de fortune et de vertu (1519).

FRANÇAIS, fräN'sâ', FRANÇOIS LOUIS (181497). A French landscape painter, born at Plombières, Vosges. He did not enter the Ecole des Beaux-Arts until 1834. While there he studied under Corot and Jean Gigoux, and exhibited first in the Salon of 1837. Many of his lithographs are remarkable, and he was also an excellent engraver on wood; but it is as a landscape painter that he stands highest. Although many of his subjects are Italian, he is particularly the paint er of the banks of the Seine and the country about Paris. Français belongs to no school; he is an idealist, from the essentially poetical qual

ity of his brush, and a realist because of his perfect sanity and the restraint and decision of his work. "The End of Winter" (1853), "Orpheus" (1863), and "Daphnis and Chloë" (1872), his masterpiece, and "Evening," are in the Luxembourg. He received first-class medals in 1848, and at the Paris expositions of 1855 and 1867, and medals of honor at the Paris Exposition of 1878 and the Salon of 1890, and the cross of the Legion of Honor in 1867.

South Italy, in the Province of Lecce, midway FRANCAVILLA, frän'kå-vêl'lå. A city in between Taranto and Brindisi (Map: Italy, K 10). It manufactures cloth, leather, and leather goods, and markets oil and wine. Population, in 1881, of commune, 16,000; in 1901, 20,422.

FRANCE. A republic of western Europe, lying between latitudes 42° 20′ and 51° 5' N. and longitudes 4° 48′ W. and 7° 31' E. from Greenwich (7° 8' W. and 5° 11' E. from Paris). It is bounded on the north by the English Channel, Strait of Dover, and North Sea; on the northeast by Belgium and Luxemburg; on the east by Germany, Switzerland, and Italy; on the south by the Mediterranean and Spain; and on the west by the Bay of Biscay, Atlantic Ocean, and the In outline the country is English Channel. roughly hexagonal, and its perimeter is about equally distributed between seacoast and frontier. The extreme length from the North Sea to the Pyrenees is about 600 miles; the greatest breadth from the extremity of Brittany to the Vosges is about 550 miles, and diagonally, to Mentone on the Mediterranean, about 675 miles. France ranks fourth in size among European countries; its area, according to official surveys, is 204,199 square miles, and, according to the determinations of the War Department, which are believed

to be nearer correct, 207,050 square miles. Included in these totals are the island of Corsica and many small islands, with an aggregate surface of 3700 square miles.

TOPOGRAPHY.

France possesses natural boundaries throughout, and is to a high degree an The eastern border independent physical unit.

is girdled by the ranges of the Alps, the Jura, the Vosges, the Rhenish Highlands, and the Ardennes, which separate France from the countries of central Europe; the Spanish frontier is defined throughout its extent by the Pyrenees. The ranges on the east are broken in places by gaps and passes, through which commercial communication is maintained with the bordering States. The Pyrenees, however, present a great unbroken wall, communication with Spain being had around their extremities. On the northwest, west, and southeast the boundaries are formed by open seas, the total coast-line measuring about 1950 miles. Much of the coast-line is unbroken by important inlets, with the result that good harbors are comparatively few. Most of the harbors are river ports or are protected by breakwaters, as at Cherbourg. The northwestern coast, which confronts the southern shores of England, is intersected by the deep inlets of the Somme and the Seine, and has an irregular course, owing to the prominent peninsula of Normandy (called Cotentin), to the many capes, and to minor indentations. It varies in character from low, sandy stretches, as on the North Sea, to bold, rocky cliffs, such as are ex

posed in the Pays-de-Caux, between Dieppe and Havre, and on the north coast of Brittany. Between the latter peninsula and Normandy is the broad indentation occupied by the Gulf of Saint-Malo, with the Channel Islands, comprising Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, etc., which are held by Great Britain, although physically belonging to the mainland. The western coast, from Pointe Saint-Mathieu, the extremity of Brittany, to the Gironde, maintains an irregular outline, and is intersected by the bays of Douarnenez, Quiberon, Bourgneuf, by the Pertuis Breton, and the Pertuis d'Antioche, and by the estuarine mouths of the Loire and the Gironde. The low and generally sandy shore is fringed by islands, of which the largest are Ouessant (Ushant), Belle Ile, Ile de Noirmoutier, Saint Martin de Ré, and Ile d'Oléron. Southward of the Gironde the coast, formed by a straight, monotonous stretch of dunes, is bordered by the arid moors of the 'Landes,' the Bassin d'Arcachon being the only important indentation in this section. The Mediterranean coast, by which France enjoys easy access to Africa and the East, stretches in a broad double curve from the Pyrenees to the Maritime Alps. Bold and rocky on the extreme west, it soon becomes low and sandy, inclosing numerous lagoons, but without good harbors. Near the middle the Rhône has built its delta seaward, and incloses between its mouths the island of Camargue. East of the Rhône the shore conforms to the projecting spurs of the Provençal Highlands, and of the Maritime Alps, which shelter the harbors of Marseilles, Toulon, Cannes, and Nice.

The physiography of France, broadly considered, falls naturally into regions that are determined, in their position and surface features, by the events of geological history. There are thus the regions of highlands on the eastern and southern borders, the great Central Plateau in the south-central part west of the Rhône Valley, the lower plateau of Normandy and Brittany, and the extensive plains in the north and west, occupied by the basins of the Seine, the Loire, and the Garonne. A line drawn diagonally across the country from Bayonne in the southwest to the Ardennes of southern Belgium in the northeast roughly divides the rolling low plains to the west of it from the central plateau and highlands to the east of it. The mean altitude of the country is about 1000 feet; but the western section averages less than 650 feet. As the chief relief is concentrated in the south and east, the land slope is toward the Atlantic; the Rhône alone, of the large rivers, takes a southerly course into the Mediterranean.

The Alps on the southeastern border are the most important highlands in the country. They extend from the Mediterranean north to Lake Geneva, a distance of 150 miles, and with the flanking chains and foothills they occupy the entire area between Italy and the Rhône Valley. The principal groups are the Maritime, the Cottian, the Graian, and the Pennine Alps; or, according to their situation in former provinces, they may be divided into the Alps of Provence, Dauphiné, and Savoy. The Maritime range on the extreme south enters France from Italy, where it has its culminating point, the highest peak across the border, French territory, being the Cime du Diable, 8816 feet. To the north the ranges increase in elevation, and the Cottian Alps are

crowned by the Aiguille de Scolette, 11,500 feet above the sea. Across Mont Genèvre a pass leads from the valley of the Durance, in France, to that of the Dora Riparia, in Italy, which has been used as a highway since ancient times. West of the Cottian range is the small group of the Oisans, culminating in Les Ecrins, 13,462 feet, and north of it are the lofty Graian Alps, snow-capped and carrying glaciers on their rugged slopes, with a crest averaging nearly 10,000 feet in altitude. Near their southern end are the Pass of Mont Cenis (6850 feet), and the railway tunnel of the same name, now the principal line of communication with Italy. The Alps culminate in Mont Blanc (15,781 feet), of the Pennine range; and thence northward to the shores of Lake Geneva there is a gradual decrease in altitude. Interrupted by the valley of the Rhône, the line of highlands is continued on the north by the Jura Mountains, which are formed by several parallel groups resting upon a plateau tilted toward the west, and thus falling to the valleys of the Saône and the Doubs. The Jura Mountains follow a nearly north direction at first, but gradually bend to the east and enter Swiss territory, where, or on the frontier of France, they attain their maximum elevation of over 5600 feet (Crêtde-la-Neige). The Vosges Mountains, separated from the Jura by the gap at Belfort, now form a part of the French frontier, their eastern slopes fronting upon Alsace, which since 1871 has been incorporated into the German Empire. Their crest is a flat-topped mountain ridge, broken by peaks of 4000 to 4700 feet elevation, connecting in the southern part with the Monts Faucilles, a low range that extends westward in the form of an are between the sources of the Saône and the Meuse and Moselle. A northern offshoot of the latter highlands stretches along the left bank of the Meuse, and is continued by the Forest of Argonne to the low plateau of the Ardennes, of which only a small portion lies in France. The Pyrenees, rising with great abruptness on the southern border, extend from the Mediterranean to the Bay of Biscay. A height of 9100 feet is attained in Mont Canigou, near the Mediterranean, and farther west this altitude is exceeded by Montcalm (10,000 feet), Pic Long (10.475 feet), Pic du Midi (9440 feet), and by others on the French side, and by still loftier elevations south of the border. In its conformation the chain is a true sierra, having a uniform crest line that is notched by slight gaps, usually but little below the level of the neighboring peaks. Passes, practicable for railways, are found along the low coast strips at the extreme ends; but between these points there are but few highways leading from France to Spain that can be traversed without great difficulty.

The Central Plateau, south of the Loire and west of the Rhône, is the chief physiographic feature of central France. The plateau rises sharply from the Mediterranean and Rhodanian depressions in several groups of highlands that are collectively known as the Cévennes. Beginning on the southwest with the Montagne Noire, at the passage of Naurouse, between the Aude and the Garonne, which lies at the base of the Pyrenees, the elevations include in their generally northeasterly course Monts de l'Espinousse, Monts Garrigues, and the Cévennes in the lesser sense, terminating with Mont Lozère (5584 feet).