Tab. 5474. 

 LINUM Macraei. 



Macrae s Linum. 



Nat. Ord. Line^e (Tribe Eulinea;). — Pentandria Pentagynia. 



Gen. Char. Sepala quinque, integra. Petala 5, contorta, fugacia. Stamina 

 basi coalita, bypogyna, antherifera 5, petalis alterna, staminodiis totidera minutis 

 vel setiformibus interjectis. Glandule 5, parvae, tubo stamineo extus adnataj, 

 petalis oppositas. Ovarium 5-loculare, loculis biovulatis, spurie subbilocellatis ; 

 sty li 5. liberi v. rarius plus minus coaliti, stigmatibus capitatis oblongis v. lineari- 

 bus. Capsula septicide 5-valvis, 5-locularis, loculis imperfecte septatis, disper- 

 mis v. septo perfecto fissili 10-cocea, coccis monospermis. Seminum albumen 

 parcum ; embryo rectus. — Herbse nonnunquam suffrutescentes, glabra: v. rarius 

 pubescentes. Stipulse v. glanduliformes. Folia alterna v. rarissime opposita, 

 at/gtista, integerrima, 1-qo -nervia. Plores in racemos terminates v. axillares, 

 nunc laxe racemoso-subcymaformes, nunc in capitula spicas v.fasciculos contractor 

 dispositi,Jlavi, ccerulei v. rarius sanguinei v. albi. Benth. et I£ook. 



Lincm Macraei ; glabrum, caulibus adscendentibus basi lignescentibus, ramis 

 erectis alternis fasciculatis, foliis lanceolatis basi eglandulosis acutissimis, 

 inferioribus suboppositis, superioi'ibus alternis, floribus copiosis subcorym- 

 boso-paniculatis aureis, stylis infra basin liberis, stigmatibus capitatis, 

 capsulis acute mucronatis. 



Linum Macraei. Benth. in Bot. Reg. sub 1326. 



About eighty species of the genus Linum are considered by 

 Messrs. Bentham and Hooker to inhabit the temperate and ex- 

 tratropical region of the two hemispheres ; but it must be con- 

 fessed that many of them are difficult of determination, and are 

 probably liable to considerable variation ; of these, four are de- 

 scribed as natives of Chili, in Claude Gay's ' Flora Chilensis,' 

 but that author has omitted to notice the L. Chamissonis of 

 Schlechtendal, in Linnsea, for 1826. Our present species is also 

 a native of Chili, having been detected at Lota by Mr. Pearce, 

 collector for the Messrs. Veitch ; and it was, we believe, exhi- 

 bited at one of the Horticultural Society's exhibitions, under 

 that name in July of the present year ; but on further examina- 

 tion it proves to be the L. Macraei of Mr. Bentham, perhaps 

 the most floribund and the most showy of all the species of the 

 genus. That author justly remarks that the flowers are of the 



OCTOBER 1st, 1864. 



