GERANIACE^. 51 



Linum mysorcnse Heyne ; Wall. Cat. 1507!; F.B.I. 

 1411,114. An annual herb with slender stem 3 to 16 

 inches high, unbranched till near the flowering region, 

 where it forms broad corymbs ; stem glabrous, striate, 

 1/16 inch or less in thickness. Leaves sessile, narrow- 

 elliptic or oblanceolate, entire, three-nerved from the 

 base. Branches of the corymb very slender; flowers 

 opposite the leaf-like green bracts. Sepals five, im- 

 bricate, each with two slender lateral, and a much 

 stronger middle vein branching reticulately towards the 

 thicker tip ; outermost sepal herbaceous with narrow 

 scarious margin, entire; inner very thin, its scarious 

 margin distinctly and regularly cut in minute oblong 

 teeth. "^ Petals yellow, twice as long as the sepals, 

 rounded. Anthers broadly oval. Styles connate below ; 

 stigmas small, capitate. Capsule opening in ten valves. 

 Seeds oval, flat, 1/20 by 1/30 inch. t. 39. 



Nilgiris : Lovedale. Fyson 1218, 1449. Bourne 1056. 



Gen. Dist. Western Ghats, Himalayas, Ceylon. 



F.B.I, and C.B.F. give sepals of genus as entire. The teeth are very 

 small, but are visible in the type plant Wall. 1507 ! 



GERANIACE/E. 



This family as defined in the Gen. Plant, and F.B.I. 

 (i 426), comprises, in India, three tribes : the GERANI- 

 E^ (Crane's-bill), the OXALIDE^ (Wood-sorrel), and 

 the BALSAMINE^ (Touch-me-not). These tribes are 

 by some systematists considered distinct families, and 

 are for convenience treated separately here. 



GERANIE/E. 



The most distinguishing characteristic of this tribe is 

 the stout beak (Crane's-bill) which forms in the centre of 

 the flower as the seeds ripen and from which the carpels 

 split off, each with a slender beak that by a quick curling 

 upwards jerks the solitary seed out (Crane's-bill), or 



4-A 



