94 LiNE.i:. 



Order XIV. L I N E >€ . 

 De OandoUe, Theorie Elementaire 217 (1819). 

 A small order, comprising little besides the. one genus 

 LINUM, Vergil (Flax). Herbs with tough-fibrous bark, alternate 

 (opposite ia No. 4) entire leaves without stipules or with glandular 

 organs in the place of them, and cymose-panicled very regular and 

 symmetrical 5-merous flowers. Sepals imbricate, persistent. Petals 

 convolute, fugacious. Stamens monadelphous at the very base. Styles 

 2, 3 or 5, often united below. Ovary of as many carpels as styles, each 

 more or less divided into 2 cells by a partition proceeding from the 

 dorsal suture. Fruit capsular, septicidally dehiscent. Seeds 1 in each 

 half -cell, ovate, compressed, mucilaginous when moistened ; embryo 

 large ; albumen thin ; cotyledons broad, flat. 



* Floivers % — 1 in. broad, blue ; sepals not glandular-margined. — 

 LiNUM proper. 



1. L. usitatissemum;, Linn. Sp. PI. i. 277 (1753), partly. Annual, 

 glabrous, glaucous, 1 —2 ft. high, simple up to the ample inflorescence : 

 sepals oval, short-acuminate, 3-carinate-nerved at base, the inner scarious- 

 fnargined and ciliate : petals broad-cuneiform, blue, with deeper veins, 

 J^ in. long : capsule round-ovoid, equalling the calyx, tardily dehiscent, 

 incompletely 10-celled, the septa not ciliate. — One of the cultivated flaxes; 

 occasionally spontaneous. 



2. L. HUMiLE, Mill. Diet. ed. 8 (1768) ; L. usitatissimum , Linn, in part. 

 Much like the last, but lower and more branching : capsule more 

 elongated, jjromptly dehiscent, the septa ciliate. — Another of the long- 

 cultivated flaxes of the Old World ; sometimes found wild by waysides. 



3. L. Lewisii, Pursh, Fl. i. 210 (1814) ; Trel. Trans. St. Louis Acad. 

 V. 12; L. perenne, B. & W. Bot. Oalif. i. 89, not Linn.; L. decurrens, 

 Kell. Proc. Oalif. Acad. iii. 44. fig. 11. Perennial, glabrous, glaucous, 

 1 — 2% ft. high, densely leafy below, lax-corymbose above : sepals broadly 

 ovate, not ciliate, 3 — 7-carinate-nerved : petals large, deep blue : capsule 

 broadly ovate, obtuse, 3 — 4 lines long, twice as long as the sepals, the 10 

 valves dehiscing widely, the septa ciliate. — While Messrs. Brewer and 

 Watson make this beautiful plant '' Common on dry soils nearly through- 

 out the State," Prof. Trelease limits its westerly range to the " Great 

 Plains," thus excluding it from California altogether. It is frequent in 

 our middle and higher mountains northward ; less common in the Coast 

 Range, but found on the Salinas, Brewer, and at Colma and Millbrae, 

 Behr. It is absent from the interior and drier sections of the State. 



* * Anmials ; leaves oflea with stipular glands ; fl. small, white, rose- 



purph or yellow ; sepals usually glandular-ciliale ; petals commonly 



with lateral teeth and ventral appendages, pistils only 2 or 3. — 



Subgenus Hesperolinon, Gray. 



-1— Petals yellow. 



