182 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



Section II.— EU-LINUM. 



Petals not adhering by their claws. Leaves alternate, scattered, 

 without glands (abortive stipules) at their base. 



SPECIES 11.— LIN UM PERENNE. Linn. 

 Plate CCXC. 



Linum anglicum, " Mill'' Planch. 



L. perenne, var. anglicum, Planch, in Hook. Lond. Jour, of Bot. Ser. II. Vol. VII. 



Rootstock woody. Stems very numerous, sub-erect from a 

 decumbent base, simple except at the apex. Leaves strap-shaped, 

 attenuated at each end and acute at the apex, crowded, ascending. 

 Flowers few, in terminal pseudo-racemes, usually combined into 

 irregular corymbs. Two outer sepals obovate, apiculate with 

 narrow membranous margins ; three inner ones roundish-obovate, 

 sub-truncate, rounded at the apex, scarcely apiculate, with broad 

 membranous margins ; all entire, 5-nerved (rarely only 3-nerved), 

 with only the middle nerve reaching the apex. Petals broadly 

 obovate, four to six times as long as the sepals. Capsule 

 apiculate. 



In rough chalky places. Hare. The only specimens I have 

 seen are from Cambridgeshire, though it has been reported from 

 several other counties. Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Northampton- 

 shire, Salop, Rutlandshire or South Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and 

 Durham, are those in which it has most likely been found ; but the 

 species has been so confounded with L. angustifolium, that little 

 reliance can be placed on book-statements of localities. 



Ennjland. Perennial. Summer. 



Stems growing in dense tufts, 1 to 2 feet high, wiry and almost 

 woody and leatless at the base, densely leafy in the middle portion, 

 with the leaves ascending or sub-erect, -^ to f inch long. Elowers 

 rather few, bright cobalt blue, 1 to 1\ inch across, with the petals 

 overlapping each other at the edges. Inner sepals very blunt, 

 sometimes with, but frequently without, an apiculus. Petals 

 broadly obovate-wedgeshaped, truncate at the apex, contiguous. 

 Fruit pedicels erect, one to three times as long as the calyx. 

 Capsule globular, scarcely apiculate. Seeds greyish-olive coloured, 

 surrounded by a very narrow wing. Plant deep green, very slightly 

 glaucous, quite glabrous. 



TIus is one of the species in wliich the llowcrs are dimorphous; 



