122 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



me that the specimens must have be'en cultivated, its 

 cultivation being very common in winter in the north of 

 India. Boissier 1 mentions L. kumile, with narrow leaves, 

 which Kotschy gathered " near Schiraz in Persia, at the 

 foot of the mountain called Sabst Buchom." This is, 

 perhaps, a spot far removed from cultivation ; but I 

 cannot give satisfactory information on this head. Ho- 

 henacker found L. usitatissimum " half wild " in the pro- 

 vince of Talysch, to the south of the Caucasus, towards the 

 Caspian Sea. 2 Steven is more positive with regard to 

 Southern Russia. 3 According to him, it " is found pretty 

 often on the barren hills to the south of the Crimea, 

 between Jalta and Nikita; and Nordmann found it on 

 the eastern coast of the Black Sea." Advancing westward 

 in Southern Russia, or in the region of the Mediterranean, 

 the species is but rarely mentioned, and only as escaped 

 from cultivation, or half wild. In spite of doubts and of 

 the scanty data which we possess, I think it very pos- 

 sible that the annual flax, in one or other of these two 

 forms, may be wild in the district between the south of 

 Persia and the Crimea, at least in a few localities. 



The winter flax is only known under cultivation in a 

 few provinces of Italy. 4 



The Linum ambiguum of Jordan grows on the coast 

 of Provence and of Languedoc in dry places. 5 



Lastly, Linum angustifolium, which hardly differs 

 from the preceding, has a well-defined and rather large 

 area. It grows wild, especially on hills throughout the 

 region of which the Mediterranean forms the centre ; that 

 is, in the Canaries and Madeira, in.Marocco, 6 Algeria, 7 

 and as far as the Cyrenaic ; 8 from the south of Europe, 



1 Boissier, Flora Orient., i. p. 851. It is L. usitatissimum of Kotschy, 

 No. 164. 



Boissier, ibid. ; Holienli., Enum. Talysch. , p. 168. 



Steven, Verzeichniss der auf der taurischen Halbinseln wildwach- 

 Kenden Pflanzen, Moscow, 1857, p. 91. 



Heer, Ueb. d. Flachs, pp. 17 and 22. 



Jordan, quoted by Walpers, Anna!., vol. ii., and by Heer, p. 22. 



Ball, Spicilegium Fl. Marocc., p. 380. 



Munby, Catal., edit. 2, p. 7. 



Eohlf, according to Cosson, Bulle. Soc. Bot. de Fr., 1875, p. 46, 



