130 LINE^ 



in each imperfect cell, pendulous. This Order consists mostly of herbaceous 

 plants, having yellow, red, white, or blue flowers. It is of great importance, 

 as containing species, the tenacious fibres of which are made into linen. 



1. Flax {Limmi). — Sepals 5; petals 5 ; capsule 10-valved, and 10-celled. 

 Name from the Celtic Lin, thread. 



2. Flax-seed {Badiola). —^e-psih 4 ; connected below, 3-cleft ; petals 4 ; 

 capsule 8-valved, and 8-celled. Name from radim, a ray, either from the 

 ray-like segments of the calyx, or the radiate direction of the branches. 



1. Flax {Linum). 

 * Leaves alternate. 



1. Perennial Flax {L. perdnne). — Leaves very narrow, tapering to a 

 sharp point ; sepals inversely egg-shaped, obtuse, obscurely 5-ribbed. Plant 

 perennial. This rare Flax grows on chalk in many parts of England, as in 

 Cambridgeshire, where one often sees its delicate blue flower in June and 

 July, — a flower so frail, that the lightest breath of wind seems to make it 

 quiver, and a butterfly's passing wing to waft it away. The stems are very 

 slender, about a foot high, several of them arising from one root. The narrow 

 leaves are without stalks. 



2. Narrow-leaved Flax (L. angustifdlium). — Leaves very narrow, 

 tapering to a point; sepals elliptical, pointed, 3-ribbed. Plant perennial. 

 This species is more common than the last, especially on the sandy pastures 

 in the southern and western counties of England. It much resembles the 

 Perennial Flax, but is characterised by its more pointed sepals, and the paler 

 blue tint of its equally fragile but smaller flower, which expands from May 

 to September. 



3. Common Flax {L. mitatissimum). — Stems mostly growing singly 

 from the root ; leaves alternate, lanceolate ; sepals egg-shaped, acute, 3-nerved, 

 slightly fringed ; petals edged with roundish notches. Plant annual. This 

 species has blue flowers, like the last, expanding, too, in the midsummer 

 months ; but it is altogether much larger, and the circumstance of its root 

 l)earing a single stem, instead of several, is a marked feature of difference. 

 The flower, too, is of a deeper blue colour, and the leaves are more distant. 

 Though quite a common plant of our fields, especially near spots where Flax 

 has been cultivated, and though found apparently wild almost all over Europe, 

 yet neither we nor any other people can claim it as a true native, for it occurs 

 only in those countries where Flax is spun, or linseed-oil expressed. It is Le 

 Lin of the French, Der Flachs of the German, and the Flasch of the Dutch. 



This species is the well-known thread, or clothing plant, so interesting in 

 its associations, so valuable in its productions, and apparently among the 

 eai^liest cultivated plants in the world. The reader of Holy Writ recalls, at 

 its mention, the period when, in the time of sorrow, brought by God's anger 

 upon the people of Egypt, the Flax was smitten just as it was boiled, that is, 

 furnished with a seed-vessel. The fine linen of Egypt, so often referred to 

 in Scripture, and in other ancient records, was made from it ; and specimens 

 of this fabric are yet to be seen in the linen in which the mummies are 

 enfolded. The paintings of the grotto of El Kab yet show the whole 

 process of the ancient manufacture with the greatest clearness ; while from 



