n8 FLOWERS OF THE CORNFIELDS 



The flowers, in a panicle, are blue and large. The 5 sepals are 

 egg-shaped, acute, keeled, 3-veined, and the 5 petals are notched. 



The capsule is smooth within, rounded, with 5 valves, and blunt, 

 with a sharp point at the tip. The seeds are glossy, flattened at the 

 side, the pods opening elastically. 



It is often 18 in. high. The flowers bloom in June and July. It is 

 annual. 



Flax is like Purging Flax in the position of the honey glands, 

 and the anther stalks are united below and form a fleshy ring in the 

 hollow of the ovary, secreting drops of honey, which enlarge and 

 reach the sepals below, from 5 glands on the outer surface opposite 

 the stamens. The petals, which are much larger and blue, are 

 attached to this fleshy ring just above the honey glands, and alternate 

 with the stamens, the lower halves of the petals touching, becoming 

 narrow at the base, and leaving a round opening just above the 

 honey gland. The 5 anthers empty their pollen at the same time as 

 the stigmas are ripe, and as the stigmas are on the same level, they 

 become dusted with pollen, though the anthers are at first some 

 distance from the stigmas, and thus avoid self-pollinating the plant. 

 When a visitor comes from another flower and inserts its proboscis 

 between the stigmas and anthers it cross-pollinates the flower, but if 

 it approaches from outside it presses the anthers against the stigma 

 and self-pollinates it. In the absence of insects the stamens bend 

 inwards. 



The visitors are Hymenoptera (Apidae, Apis mellifica, Halictus 

 cylindricus) and Lepidoptera Silver Y Moth (Plusia gamma]. 



The seeds of Flax are dispersed by the plant's own agency. The 

 fruit is 5 -celled, and divided into 2 chambers occasionally. The outer 

 seed coat swells when moistened and glues the seeds to the ground. 

 When ripe and dry the capsule opens by 10 slits, and the seeds are 

 dispersed round the parent plant. 



It is more or less a lime-loving plant, growing on a lime soil in 

 chalk and limestone districts, but it is also at home on sand and gravel, 

 which are also largely associated with both formations. 



The fungi Flax rust, Melampsora lini, and Flax wilt, Fusarinm 

 lini, attack Flax. 



The beetles Aphthona euphorbia, A. virescens, Melolontha vulgaris, 

 and the moths Silver Y Moth (Plusia gamma), Broom Moth (Mamestra 

 pisi), Sword-grass (Calocampa exoleta), feed upon it. 



Linum, Theophrastus, is the Greek linon. Flax is cognate with 

 the German flacks, and may be from the Latin filum> a thread, flare, 



