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FLOWERS OF THE CORNFIELDS 



amid the tall cornstalks, and is half-obscured unless one has eyes for 

 the unexpected. 



Tall and erect, with nearly entire leaves, which on the stem have 

 ear-like lobes at the base, it is only branched at the top, and is a 

 graceful plant, having the flax habit, as the Latin generic name 

 implies. 



Amid the corn it is elongated, and never becomes a branched, 



spreading, or cymose plant. The 

 radical-leaves are stalked. With 

 small yellow flowers, like a Sisym- 

 brium, the Gold-of- Pleasure may 

 be distinguished by the shape of 

 the pods, which are swollen, blunt 

 at the tip, the pouches keeled, the 

 four keels continued in the long 

 style, and the ultimate flower- 

 stalks are spreading. The seeds 

 are in two rows, without margins, 

 oblong, and covered with small 

 points. 



The stem varies in height 

 from 2 to 3 ft. Flowers may be 

 gathered from June to July. The 

 plant is annual and propagated by 

 seeds. 



The flowers are small and 

 largely hidden amongst the corn, 

 so that insect visitors are few, and 

 the petals are erect, the stigma 

 undivided. Self-pollination is thus 

 the normal mode of producing 



fertile seeds. The seeds of Gold -of- Pleasure are dispersed by the 

 plant itself, the pods opening and allowing the seeds to fall imme- 

 diately around the parent plant. 



The soil required is a sand soil, and the plant is strictly a sand plant. 

 No fungi or insects are known to infest the plant. 

 The name Camelina is derived from the Greek chamai, in the 

 ground, and linon, flax, while sativa is Latin, meaning sown or culti- 

 vated, as opposed to wild. The English names are Camline, Cheat, 

 Dutch Flax, Gold-of- Pleasure, Myagrum, Oil-seed. 



It is often, no doubt, introduced, as perhaps originally, with linseed. 



Photo. The Author 



GOLD-OF-PLEASURE (Camelina saliva, Crantz) 



