98 LfNEiE 



ages supplied the valuable textile substance which derives from it the 

 name " linen " ; the mucilaginous seeds are employed in "linseed " 

 poultices ; and, when crushed, yield " linseed oil," the chief oil 

 used in painting, and the refuse " oilcake," used as food for cattle. 



1. Radiola. — Flowers tetramerous ; sepals trifid. 



2. LiNUM. — ^/<9ze/^r5 pentamerous ; 5^/^/^ entire. 



1. Radiola (Flax-seed, All-seed). — A minute annual herb; 

 stem filiform, repeatedly forked ; flowers terminal and in the forks ; 



sepals 4, deeply and acutely 3-cleft, united 

 below ; petals 4, fugacious. (Name, a dimi- 

 nutive from the Latin radius^ a ray, from 

 the radiating branches.) 



I. R. linoides (Common Flax-seed), the 

 only species, a minute plant, never exceed- 

 ing four inches in height, bearing ovate- 

 acute leaves and a large number of minute 

 white flowers, which, as the plants generally 



rAdIOLA LIN6iDES , ,1 r. . -i. l_ " 



(Pomvzon Flaxseed). grow many together, often prevent its bemg 

 overlooked. — Damp heaths ; frequent. — 

 Fl. July, August. Annual. 



2. LiNUM (Flax). — Herbs or small shrubs; leaves scattered, 

 or rarely opposite ; flowers in cymes, pentamerous ; sepals 5, 

 entire ; fetals 5, fugacious ; disk of five glands opposite the petals ; 

 stanmis 5, with 5 staminodes between them ; ovary 5 -chambered, 

 chambers divided almost into 2 ; styles 5 ; ovules 10 ; fruit cap- 

 sular. (Name, the Latin name of the plant, perhaps of Keltic origin.) 



1. Z. cathdrticwn (Cathartic Flax). — A very slender, much- 

 branched, glabrous plant, rarely exceeding 6 in. in height ; leaves 

 mostly opposite, linear-oblong ; flowers numerous, \ in. across, 

 white, in dichasial cymes, drooping before expansion ; sepals 

 pointed, i -veined. — Dry pastures ; common. — Fl. June — August. 

 Annual. 



2. L. perenne (Perennial Flax). — A slender plant about a foot 

 high, with wiry stems ; very narrow, scattered, sessile leaves., 

 tapering to a point; sepals obovate, obtuse, obscurely 5-veined, 

 glabrous ; petals a beautiful sky blue, but so fugacious as scarcely 

 to bear being gathered. Chalky places; rare. — Fl. June, July. 

 Perennial. 



3. Z. angustifblium (Narrow-leaved Flax). — Like the last ; but 

 irregularly branched and distinctly marked by its sharp-pointed, 

 elliptical, 3-veined sepals^ and by the lighter, more lilac, blue of 

 \\.^floivers. — Dry pastures in the southern and western counties ; 

 frequent. — Fl. May — September. Annual or Perennial. 



