]18 PENTANDRIA— rENTAGYNIA. Linum. 



* Leaves alternate. 



1 . L. iisitatissiinum. Common Flax. 

 Calyx-leaves ovate, acute, with three ribs. Petals crenate. 



Leaves lanceolate, alternate. Stem mostly solitary. 



L. usitatissimum. Linn. Sp. PL 397. mild. v. \.\ 533. Fl.Br.342. 

 Engl Bot. V. 19. <. 1357. Curt. Lond.fasc.o. t. 22. TVoodv. Med. 

 Bot. i.\\\. Mart. Rusf. t. 133. Hook. Scot. 97. 



L. n. 836. Hall. Hist. v. 1 , 3/3. 



L. sylvestre. Matth. Valgr, v. 1. 375. f. 



L. sylvestre, sativum plane referens. Rail Syn. 362. 



j8 Linum. Cainer.Epil. 200./. Bauh. Hist. v. 3. p. 2. 450. f. Fuchs. 

 Hist. 47 1 ./. Brunf. v.\.\ 70. f. Raii Syn. 362. 



L. germanicum. Trag. Hist. 353. f. 



L. sativum. Ger. Em. 556./. 



In cultivated fields, frequent. 



Annual. July. 



-Koo< slender. Heri very smooth. Siem 18 inches or 2 feet high, 

 round, straight, leafy, corymbose at the summit. Leaves scat- 

 tered, sessile, acute, 3-ribbed, rather glaucous ; the lowermost 

 short and blunt. FL several, erect, in a corymbose panicle, blue, 

 glossy, veiny. Cal. with 3 prominent ribs, and a membranous 

 irregular margin. 



/S is merely the more luxuriant cultivated state of the same plant. 

 The seeds give out an abundant mucilage to boiling water, and 

 yield by pressure the well-known linseed oil. The fibrous sub- 

 stance of the barh, duly prepared, makes the most delicate and 

 strong vegetable thread that has yet been discovered, AH 

 these qualities betray a relationship to the Mallow tribe, or Co- 

 lumn i/erce ^ as the botanical characters bring Linum towards 

 Geranium, rather than to the Caryophyllece. A learned Ger- 

 man botanist, of more technical than practical skill, once pub- 

 lished L. usitatissimum for a new Geranium, as M. L'Heritier, 

 vvlio had a specimen from iiim, informed me. 



2. L. jmre?me. Perennial Blue Flax. 



Calyx-leaves obovate, obtuse, obscurely five-ribbed, naked. 

 Leaves linear-lanceolate. Stems numerous, ascending. 



L. perenne. Linn. Sp. PI. 397 . Willd. v. \.\534. FL Br. 343. 



EngL Bot. V.]. t. 40. Mart. Rust. t. 134. 

 L. calycibus capsulisque obtusis, foliis alternis lanccolatis acutis, 



caulibus ramosissimis. Mill. Ic. 111. t. 166./. 2. 

 L. sylvestre cteruleum perenne erectius, flore et capitulo majore. 



Raii Syn. 302. 

 |S. L. sylvestre cferuleum ])erennc procumbens, flore ct capitulo 



minore. Raii Syn. 362. 

 On chalky hills. 



