Linum. | LINE. 87 
stems few or many, simple or branched, erect or Sprague 6-24 in. 
high. Leaves numerous, scattered, ascending, +~1 in. long, linear-- 
oblong to linear-lanceolate or linear-subulate, 1- 3-nerved. Flowers 
in terminal corymbs, white, often large and handsome, sometimes 
lin. diam. Sepals ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acute. Styles united 
at the base, their tips free, recurved. Capsule large, broadly ovoid, . 
splitting into 10 1-seeded cocci.—d. fiich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 317; 
A. Cunn. Precur. n. 608; Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 3574; Raoul, Choiz 
de Plantes, 47; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel.i. 28; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 35; 
Kirk, Students’ Fl. 77. 
North aNnp SourH Istanps, Srewart IstaAnpD, CHATHAM ISLANDS: 
Abundant along the coasts, and occasionally found inland, ascending to almost 
2000 ft. on the mountains of the South Island. October—January. 
A very beautiful but highly variable plant. 
Orper XIII. GERANIACEA. 
Herbs or shrubs, very rarely trees. Leaves opposite or alter- 
nate, usually stipulate. Flowers regular or irregular, generally her- 
maphrodite. Sepals 5, seldom fewer, free or united to the middle, 
imbricate or rarely valvate, posterior one sometimes spurred. Pe- 
tals as many as the sepals, rarely fewer or wanting, hypogynous 
or slightly perigynous, usually imbricate. Torus barely expanded 
into a disc, with or without 5 glands alternating with the petals, 
usually raised in the centre into a beak. Stamens generally twice 
the number of the petals or fewer by suppression ; filaments free or 
connate at the base; anthers 2-celled. Ovary 3—d-lobed, cells the 
same number ; carpels 3-0, adnate to the axis as far as the insertion 
of the ovules, and often prolonged into a beak-like style or styles; 
ovules 1-2 to each carpel, rarely more. Fruit a 3—5-lobed capsule, 
often splitting from below upwards into as many l-seeded carpels 
with long styles, which coil up elastically ; or the capsule may be 
loculicidally 3—-5-celled, with 2-several seeds in each cell; or more 
rarely the mature fruit is composed of 3-8 indehiscent 1-seeded 
cocci. Seeds with scanty or no albumen; embryo straight or 
curved. 
A rather large and somewhat heterogeneous order, composed of several tribes 
differing in important points of structure, and often kept up as separate orders. 
Taken in a broad sense, it contains 20 genera and about 750 species. Probably 
about three-quarters of the species are natives of South Africa, but the order is 
also well represented in the north temperate zone. It is comparatively rare in 
ihe tropics and in Australasia. Many of the species are highly ornamental, but 
few of them possess any economic value. The three New Zealand genera have 
a wide range. 
A. Capsule beaked, splitting into 1-seeded lobes which coil up elastically along 
the beak. Leaves toothed or lobed. 
Flowers regular. Perfect stamens10 .. .. 1. GERANIUM. 
Flowers irregular, with a spur adnate to the pedicel. 
Perfect stamens 5-7 sh oe ce .. 2, PELARGONIUM. 
