FLAX FAMILY. 



XXIV. LINAGES, FLAX FAMILY. 



Herbs (rarely shrubs) with regular and symmetrical flowers ; 

 sepals 5, imbricated ; petals 5, convolute ; stamens 5, their fila- 

 ments united at the base ; ovary with as many cells as there 

 are styles ; pod with twice as many, through the growth of a 

 false partition. 



1. LINUM. Seeds with a mucilaginous coat and a large, straight, oily embryo ; styles and 



cells of the ovary 5 ; leaves simple, nearly sessile, narrow, and entire ; stipules 0, or 

 gland-like ; flowers (Lessons, p. 11, Figs. 1-4, p. 14, Figs. 9 and 10, p. 95, Fig. 270, 

 and p. 98, Fig. 281) usually opening for only one day and in sunshine, all summer. 

 Hardy. or % 



2. KEINWAKDTIA.. Styles and cells of the ovary 3-4 ; leaves broad ; stipules minute, 



awl-shaped, falling early. Greenhouse shrubs, with showy yellow flowers. 



1. LINUM, FLAX. (The classical name.) Ours are slender herbs, 

 with flowers (often minute) of short duration. 



* Wild species, annuals or scarcely perennials, with yellow flowers. 

 -t- Sepals and bracts entire. 



L. Virginianum, Linn. The commonest WILD FLAX in dry woods, 2 

 high, spreading or recurving branches, terete and even ; leaves oblong or 

 lanceolate, only the lower spatulate and opposite ; flowers scattered ; 

 styles distinct ; pod little larger than a pin's head. 



L. Floridanum, Trelease. Found in 111., Va., and S., is more strict, 

 with broadly ovate and obtuse pods. 



L. striatum, Walt. Like the first ; but has the brandies short and 

 sharply 4-angled, with intermediate grooves (whence the name) ; most of 

 the stem-leaves opposite and oblong ; flowers more crowded. Wet 

 grounds, Mass, and Can., S. 



- t- Sepals and bracts conspicuously serrulate with glandular-bristly 

 edges. 



L. sulcatum, Riddell. Branches upright, grooved ; leaves linear and 

 scattered ; a pair of dark glands in place of stiuules ; sepals sharp-pointed, 

 3-nerved ; styles united half-way up. Dry soil, Mass, to Minn, and S. W. 



L. rlgidum, Pursh. Usually low, glaucous ; branches rigid ; calyx 

 finally falling off ; the flowers rather large. Miss. River, W. 



* * Cultivated, hardy, herbaceous, with largish handsome flowers. 



L. usitatissimum, Linn. COMMON FLAX. Leaves narrow-lanceolate ; 

 flowers corymbose, rich blue ; sepals pointed, ciliate ; stigmas slender, 

 club-shaped. Old World, and inclined to run wild. Extensively 

 cult, for the seeds and fiber. 



L. per^nne, Linn. PERENNIAL FLAX. Narrower leaved ; sepals blunt, 

 sometimes erose, but not ciliate ; petals sky-blue, but there are pink and 

 white forms ; stigmas oblong-capitate. 11 Cult, from Eu. in some vari- 

 eties for ornament ; a variety also native beyond the Mississippi. 



L. grandiflbrum, Desf. RED FLAX. 1 high, with linear or lanceo- 

 late leaves and showy, crimson-red flowers ; sepals and bracts ciliate-ser- 

 rulate. H Cult, as a hardy annual ; from North Africa. 



2. REINWARDTIA. (For K. G. K. Eeinwardt, a botanist of Leyden 

 in the early part of this century.) 2Z 



