Linum. \ LIXACEAE. 125 



Family XXX. LINACEAE. 



Herbs, shrubs or rarely trees. Leaves alternate, simple, usually 

 entire ; stipules lateral, intrapetiolar or 0. Flowers regular, 

 bisexual, often 2- or more-morphic. Sepals 5 (or 4), free or 

 connate at the base, imbricate. Petals 5 (or 4), hypogynous (or 

 slightly perigynous), imbricate, often contorted, usually fugacious. 

 Stamens 1-2 (-3) -times as many as the petals, with occasionally 

 interposed staminodes, united at the base into a ring or short 

 tube ; filaments usualty filiform, inserted on or near the apex of 

 the tube ; anthers versatile. Disk or of 5 entire or didymous 

 glands, adnate to the staminal tube. Ovary free, entire, 3-5- 

 celled ; ovules 1-2 in each cell, pendulous ; styles 3-5, free or 

 connate ; stigmas usually terminal. Fruit a septicidal capsule, 

 splitting into as many valves as or by false dissepiments into 

 twice as many as the cells of the ovary, or a drupe. Seeds with 

 fleshy or no albumen. 



Erect annuals 1. Linum. 



Shrubs or trees : 



Shrubs climbing by spiral hooks or straggling ; twigs tomentose ; 



petals imbricate; drupe globose 2. Hugonia. 



Erect shrubs or trees ; twigs glabrous ; petals contorted : 



Stipules minute, subulate ; flowers over 1 in. across ; capsule 



globose, many-seeded 3. Reinwardtia. 



Stipules short, intrapetiolar, semi-amplexicaul ; flowers -3 in. 



across; drupe oblong, 1-seeded ..- 4. Erythroxylon. 



1. Linum, Linn. 



Herbs or rarely undershrubs. Leaves alternate, narrow, 

 entire : stipules or glanduliform. Sepals 5, entire. Petals 5, 

 contorted, fugacious. Stamens 5, connate at the base, often 

 alternating with minute staminodes ; glands 5, small, adnate to 

 the outside of the staminal tube. Ovary 5-celled, cells imperfectly 

 septate, 2-seeded, or by false dissepiments completely divided each 

 into 2 1-seeded cells. Seeds compressed ; albumen small. 

 LINUM MYSORENSE, Heyne ; F. B. I. i. 411 ; W. & A. 134. 



A slender erect annual with small yellow flowers and short 

 linear leaves. 



Hilly regions in the Deccan and W. Ghats at high elevations. 

 Linum usitatissimum, L., the Flax Plant, is often cultivated for 



