386 BALSAMINACE^E. 



annular disk; anthers ovate, erect. Ovary with as many cells and 

 styles as sepals, seldom fewer; stigmas capitate; ovules anatropal, 

 pendulous. Fruit a multilocular capsule, pointed generally with the 

 indurated base of the styles; each loculament or cell more or less 

 completely divided by a spurious dissepiment, arising from the dorsal 

 suture, and opening by two valves at the apex. Seeds solitary in each 

 spurious cell, compressed, pendulous ; albumen usually in small 

 quantity, sometimes 0; embryo straight; cotyledons flat; radicle next 

 the hilum. Annual and perennial plants, with exstipulate, simple, 

 entire leaves, which are usually alternate. They are scattered over the 

 globe, but are said to be most abundant in Europe, and in the north 

 of Africa. By some authors the order is associated with Geraniacese, 

 from which it differs in its unbeaked fruit and exstipulate leaves, as 

 well as the absence of joints in the stem. There are 3 genera men- 

 tioned by Lindley, comprising 90 species. Examples Linum, Eadiola. 



818. The plants yield mucilage and fibre. Flax, which consists of 

 woody fibre (fig. 44), is procured from the inner bark of the stalk of 

 Linum usitatissimum, by the process of steeping and stripping off the 

 bark. Linen and cambric are prepared from it. The flax plant is 

 supposed to have been originally a native of Egypt, and mummy 

 cloth has been shown to be formed of linen. The integument of the 

 seeds is mucilaginous, and an infusion of them in boiling water is used 

 as a demulcent and diuretic. The cotyledons of the seeds are olea- 

 ginous, and by expression yield Linseed oil, which has the property 

 of drying and hardening into an elastic varnish, on exposure to the 

 air. It is used medicinally for burns mixed with lime water. After 

 expressing the oil a cake remains, called oil-cake, which is used for 

 fattening cattle. The powdered cake receives the name of Linseed 

 meal, and is commonly used for poultices. Another species of Linum, 

 called L. catharticum, has purgative properties, which seem to depend 

 on the presence of an acrid bitter matter, called Linin. 



819. Order 50. Balsaminacete, the Balsam Family. (Polypet. 

 Hypog.) Sepals 5, irregular, deciduous, the two inner and upper 

 connate, coloured, the lower (odd) sepal spurred (fig. 541); aestiva- 

 tion imbricated. Petals alternate with the sepals, usually 4, in conse- 

 quence of 1 being abortive, often more or less irregularly united; 

 aestivation convolute. Stamens 5. Ovary 5 -celled; ovules usually 

 numerous; stigma sessile, more or less 5-lobed. Fruit a 5 -celled 

 capsule, opening septifragally, by 5 elastic valves. Seeds usually 

 numerous, suspended, exalbuminous, with a straight embryo, and 

 radicle next the hilum. Succulent herbaceous plants with watery 

 juice, having simple, opposite, or alternate, exstipulate leaves, and 

 axillary irregular flowers. They inhabit chiefly the East Indies, and 

 are remarkable for the force with which the seed-vessels open when 

 ripe. The valves give way on account of the exosmose which goes on 



