LINUM PERENNE. — PERENNIAL FLAX. [ig 



plant will enable it to perfect seed. Mr. Darwin says the 

 forms of stamens "stand at different heights, so that the pollen 

 from the anthers of the longer stamens will adhere to one part 

 of an insect's body, and will afterwards be brushed off by the 

 rough stigmas of the longer pistils, whilst pollen from the 

 anthers of the shorter stamens will adhere to a different part of 

 the insect's body, and will afterwards be brushed off by the stig- 

 mas of the shorter pistils, and this is what is required for the 

 legitimate fertilization of both forms. We know that its own 

 pollen is as powerless on the stigma as so much inorganic dust." 

 (•' Different Forms of Flowers," 1877, p. 98.) The plant from 

 which we made our illustration has, however, been growing 

 separately and alone from iS 73 to iS 78, and has no opportunity 

 to receive pollen from other plants, but it nevertheless produces 

 seeds in tolerable abundance every year. This shows that, while 

 in England only cross-fertilization will produce seed, climatal 

 influences bring about different results in America, and the 

 whole indicates that much more remains to be discovered about 

 the habits of plants, and their " sources of action," than has yet 

 been found out. Dr. Gray thinks the American Perennial 

 Flax may not be heterostyled as the Asiatic form is, and may, 

 therefore, be a distinct species. 



The Perennial Flax affords much interest in its flowering. 

 The young tips of the flower-shoots droop down. When the 

 buds are ready to expand, they assume a perpendicular position 

 during the night, and by morning the flowers open, turning 

 towards the rising sun. Long before noon the petals have per- 

 formed their functions and have withered away. Mr. Darwin 

 has noticed a peculiar twisting of the pistils, which places the 

 stigmatic surface towards the circumference of the flower. 

 This, however, he finds confined to the long-styled forms. No 

 doubt many more discoveries of interest would reward careful 

 observers of the behavior of this plant. 



The specific name perenne indicates the most striking dis- 

 tinction between our species, and the one which yields the 



