IN SEVERAL SPECIES OF THE GENUS LINUM. 81 
course with all the flowers of any species whatever. As it is dif- 
ficult to prove without troublesome experiments the falsity of the 
belief of regular fertilization in the bud, I here notice this subject. 
An estimable and laborious observer*, resting his belief on the 
usual kind of evidence, states that in L. Austriacum (which is 
dimorphie and is considered by Planchon as a variety of L. 
perenne) the anthers open the evening before the expansion of the 
flowers, and that the long-styled stigmas are then almost always 
fertilized. He asks whether this precocious fertilization in the 
several species of Linum and in other plants is not one cause of 
the short duration of their flowers. Now we know positively that, 
so far from Linum perenne being fertilized by its own pollen in 
the bud, its own pollen is as powerless on the stigma as so much 
inorganic dust. 
Linum flavum.—To recur to our more immediate subject, in 
the long-styled form of this species the pistil is nearly twice as 
long as in the short-styled form; and the stigmas are longer with 
the papille coarser. In the short-styled form the stigmas diverge 
and pass out between the filaments. The stamens in the two forms 
differ in height, and, what is singular, the anthers of the longer 
stamens are shorter ; so that in the short-styled form both stigmas 
and anthers are shorter than in the other form. The pollen of 
the two forms does not differ. I have not been able to try any 
experiments on this species; but a careful observer, Mr. W. C. 
Crocker, intends proving their reciprocal fertility next summer. 
As this plant is propagated by cuttings, I have generally found 
that all the plants in the same garden belong to the same form. 
On inquiry I have never heard of its seeding in this country ; but 
to anyone wishing to raise seedlings, in all probability the path is 
now open, namely, by carrying pollen from one form to the other. 
I have now shown that three species of Linum are dimorphie, 
besides several races of L. perenne, esteemed by some botanists to 
be distinct species, such as Z. montanum, L. Sibiricum, and L. Aus- 
triacum. According to Vauchert, L. Gallicum, L. maritimum, and 
L. strictum ave in the same manner dimorphic, as likewise is, ac- 
cording to Planchont, Z. salsoloides. This latter botanist is the 
only one who seems to have been struck with the importance of 
the subject ; and he acutely asks whether this dimorphism has not 
some influence on the manner of fertilization. We thus know of 
* Etudes sur la Géograph. Bot., par Prof. H. Lecoq, 1856, tom. v. p. 325. 
+ Hist. Physiolog. des Plantes d Europe, 1841, tom. i. p. 401. 
t Hooker’s London Journ. of Botany, 1848, vol. vii. p. 174. 
