THE WOOD-SOBKEL FAMILY. 105 



A. Parts of the flower in flves. 



1. Flowers large, purplish-blue. Stems one to three feet high, corym- 1 Common 

 bose at the upper part ; leaves alternate, narrow lanceolate . . . . ) Flax. 



Flowers small, pure white, pendulous while in bud. Stems six to 

 eight inches high, forked at the upper part ; leaves opposite, 

 oblong or oval 



PUKGING 



Flax. 



B. Parts of the floioer in fours. 

 3. A minute plant, seldom more than one or two inches high, with \ 



dichotomous branches; egg-shaped, opposite, sessile leaves; f All-seed. 

 cud white, axillary flowers ) 



HABITATS AND LOCALITIES. 



1. Common Flax — {^L'mum usitatlssimum.) 



Occurs in fields, among corn and other crops ; the seeds, like those 

 of the opium poppy, originally let ftiU by man. Fl. July. Annual. 

 Curtis, ii. 3U ; E. B. xix. 1357 ; Baxter, v. 353. 



2. Purging Flax — [Linwn cathdrticum.) 



Common in dry fields, and especially fond of green declivities of 



pastoral hills. Plentiful about Bowdon and Tyldesley. Fl. July, 



August. Annual. 



Curtis,!. 164; E. B. vi. 382. 



3. All-seed — {Radiola millegrdna.) 

 Abundant on Liudow Common, Amberswood Common, and Knuts- 

 ford race-ground. Fl. July, August. Annual. 

 E. B. xiii. 893 ; Baxter, iii. 188. 



X.— THE WOOD-SORREL FAMILY. Oxalidece. 



Half of this family consists of shrubs and trees, belonging exclusively 

 to the hotter regions of the world ; the remainder are delicate and pretty 

 little herbaceous plants, natives of temperate and northern latitudes. 

 Our present concern is with the latter, or true wood-sorrels. Seldom 

 rising more than a few inches above the ground, these elegant little 

 plants are known by their trifoliolate leaves, in flavour agreeably acid, 

 the leaflets very changeable in position, owing to their sensitiveness to 

 variations in the atmosphere ; and by their regular and pentamerous 

 flowers, white, yellow, or pink, completely opening only in sunshine, 



