382 CONTRIBUTIONS FEOM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



early deciduous, yellow or blue; stamen? 5, united at the base and sometimes bearing 

 5 alternating staminodia; pistil of 5 united carpels, each more or less 2-celled by a 

 partial or complete membranous partition; seeds oily. 



KEY TO THE GENERA. 



Flowers blue; stigmas introrse, more or less elongated; 



sepals glandless 1. Linum (p. 382.) 



Flowers yellow; stigmas capitate; sepals, at least the 



inner ones, glandular on the margins 2. Cathartolinum (p. 382). 



1. LINUM L. Wild flax. 



Slender perennial with several erect stems from a ligneous root, glabrous throughout, 

 glaucescent, branching above; leaves small, 2 cm. long or less, sessile, oblong-lanceo- 

 late; flowers large, on slender pedicels, bright blue; sepals broadly ovate, acute or 

 obtuse, some of them with narrow membranous margins; petals obovatc, early decid- 

 uous; capsule spheroidal, with incomplete false septa; seeds flat. 



1. Linum lewisii Pursh, Fl. Amer. Sept. 210. 1814. 



Linum perenne lewisii Eat. & Wright, N. Amer. Bot. 302. 1840. 



Type locality: "In the valleys of the Rocky-mountains and on the banks of the 

 Missouri." 



Range: Alaska and British America to California, Texas, and Mexico. 



New Mexico: Higher mountains throughout the State. Meadows, in the Upper 

 Sonoran and Transition zones. 



2. CATHARTOLINUM Reichenb. Yellow flax. 



Annual or short-lived perennial herbs, with slender angled stems and small sessile 

 leaves; flowers yellow, with persistent sepals and caducous petals; sepals acute to 

 aristate, with fine gland-tipped teeth along the margins of at least some of them; 

 capsules ovoid to spherical, the partitions mostly complete. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Styles distinct; flowers in virgate racemes 1. C. neomexicanum. 



Styles more or less united; flowers corymbose. 

 Stems puberulent. 



Plants stout, branched from the base; petals 10 mm. 



long or less 2. C. puberulum. 



Plants slender, simple below; petals 13 to 15 mm. long. 3. C. vestitum. 

 Stems glabrous. 



Petals 6 to 9 mm. long 4. C. australe. 



Petals 13 to 22 mm. long. 



Sepals not long-aristate; leaves numerous and im- 

 bricated on the lower part of the stem 5. C. vernale. 



Sepals long-aristate; leaves scattered along the stem. 

 Plants slender, not leafy, the leaves narrow, 



mostly involute, thick 6. C. aristatum. 



Plants stout, densely leafy, the leaves broad 



and thin 7. C. berlandieri. 



1. Cathartolinum neomexicanum (Greene) Small, N. Amer. Fl. 25: 73. 1907. 



Linum neomexicanum Greene, Bot. Gaz. 6: 183. 1881. 



Type locality: "In woods of Pinus ponderosa on the Pinos Altos Mountains," New 

 Mexico. Type collected in 1880 by E. L. Greene. 



