64 ORD. XXXII. Gruinales. LINUM CATHARTICUM. 
THE root of this species of Flax is small, tapering and woody, and sends 
up several slender, smooth, straight stems, which rise to the height of six or 
eight inches, and are branched towards the upper part; the leaves are small, 
lanceolate, elliptical, smooth, sessile, and stand opposite in pairs ;* those to- 
wards the lower part of the stem are rounded at the extremity ; the flowers 
are small, and stand upon long peduneles, at the end of the branches; the 
calyx is composed of five permanent, lanceolate leaves, serrated and’ one- 
ribbed; the petals are white, ovate, pointed, and slightly united at the base ; 
the germen is ovate, triangular, and crowned with yellow stigmas; the fila- 
ments are ranged in a circle round the germen, and support yellow anthers ; 
the capsule is globular, about the size of a pea, ten-celled and ten-valved, 
each cell enclosing an oblong, glossy, pointed seed. Figure (a) the capsule, 
(d) the stamens, (c) the valyx, (d) the germen and styles, 
is small, delicate species of flax is indigenous to Britain. It is a very 
common plant throughout the kingdom, on hilly situations, particularly 
where the soil is chalky ;+ flowering from June to August, and it is some- 
times found in meadows. 
Sensible Qualities, §c. Purgingflax, when well dried, is of a green co- 
lour. It is nearly inodorous, whether in its recent or dried state. Water ex- 
tracts the virtues of this plant, which communicates to the menstruum a 
yellowish-brown colour (resembling an infusion of tea); with sulphate of iron 
it strikes a black colour. Macerated in sulphuric ether, it affords a fine green 
tincture, which deposits, when evaporated upon the surface of water, a green, 
bitter resin, and an extractive matter, on which, probably, the virtues of the 
plant depend. 
Medical Properties and Uses. This species of flax was highly extolled, 
both by Lewis and Gerarde, as a purgative ; the former of whom states that 
it occasionally acts as a diuretic. It operates chiefly, however, as a gentle 
cathartic ; the watery infusion, made with two drachms of the dried plant 
to one pint of boiling water, and taken to the quantity of two ounces, once 
or twice in the day, usually keeps the bowels pretty well open. The watery 
infusion also forms a convenient vehicle for salts, rhubarb, &c. Like most 
* It belongs to the second section of the genus Linwm, from having opposite 
leaves. 
+ It grows in great abundance on the waste ground, opposite the chalk-pits, at 
Greenhithe. ; ; 
