154 XXVIII. LINACE.E. 



Oeder XXVIII. LINAGES. 



Herbs or shrubs, rarely trees, usually glabrous. Lea\es usually 

 alternate, simple, entire, rarely crenate-serrate ; stipules lateral or intra- 

 petiolar or 0. Inflorescence various, normally racemose. Flowers 

 regular, hermaphrodite. Sepals 5 (rarely 4), free or connate at the base, 

 imbricate. Petals as many as the sepals, hypogjnous or rarely slightly 

 perigynous, imbricate, often contorted, usually fugacious, blue, yellow 

 or white, rarely rosy. Stamens as many as the petals with as many 

 interposed staminodes, or twice (rarely thrice) as many, united at the 

 base into a ring or a short liypogynous or slightly perigynous tube ; 

 filaments filiform, inserted on the apex or a little below the apex of the 

 tube, within or witliout ; anthers versatile, 2-celled, dehiscing longitu- 

 dinally ; glands 5, entire or didymous, usually adnate to the staminal- 

 tube or obsolete. Ovary free, entire, 3-5-celled ; ovules 1-2 in each 

 cell, inserted beneath the apex of the inner angle, pendulous, anatropous ; 

 raphe ventral ; micro pyle superior ; styles 3-5, free or more or less 

 connate ; stigmas terminal. Fruit capsular, septicidally splitting into as 

 many (or by the presence of false dissepiments), double as many valves 

 as there are cells to the ovary, leaving no axis, less commonly a drupe. 

 Seeds in each valve or pyrene 1-2, usually compressed ; testa sometimes 

 expanded into a membranous wing ; albumen fleshy or ; embryo almost 

 as long as the seed, straight or rarely incurved ; cotyledons flat or plano- 

 convex, usually ovate or elliptic ; radicle superior. — Distkib. Through- 

 out the world ; genera 14 ; species about 135. 



Herbs 1. Linum. 



An erect undershrub 2. Reinwardtia. 



A scaudent shrub, with hooked woody tendrils 3. IIugoxia. 



1. LINUM, Linn. 



Herbs sometimes suffrutescent, usually glabrous. Leaves generally 

 alternate, narrow, entire, l-many-ner\'ed ; stipules or glanduliform. 

 Inflorescence various. Sepals 5, entire. Petals 5, contorted, fugacious. 

 Stamens 5, connate at the base, hypogynous, alternate with the petals, 

 often alternating with minute or setiform staminodes ; glands 5, small, 

 adnate to the staminal-tube outside, opposite to the petals. Ovary 5- 

 celled, the cells imperfectly septate, 2-seeded, or with a perfect, fissile 

 septum, 10-valved, 1-seeded. Seeds compressed; albumoi scanty; 

 embryo straight. — Uistkib. Temperate and warm regions ; species 80. 



Flowers large, 1 in. in diam., blue 1. L. usitatissimiim. 



Flowers small, ^ in. in diam., yellow "J. L. mysorcnsc. 



1. Linum usitatissimum, Linn. tSp. PL (1753) p. 277. Annual, 

 2-4 ft. high; stems solitary or few, corymbosely branched; branches 

 ascending towards the apex. Leaves up to 1 ^ in. long, linear-lanceolate, 

 attenuated at both ends, acute at the apex. Flowers about 1 in. across, 

 in corymbose panicles. Sepals : the two outer ellij)tic, acuminate, with 

 entire membranous margins ; the three inner broader, acuminate, with 

 ciliate margins, all strongly 3-nerved, the middle nerve alone reaching 

 the apex. Petals blue, slightly crenate. Capsules mucronate, the edge 

 of the dissepiments in the interior glabrous. Seeds compressed, ellipsoid, 



