LINE.E LINOULA. 



species are described and figured by Knoor in his 

 Monuments of the Deluge. There are two genera, 

 namely, Tuvhyphltsres, having the four anterior legs 

 terminated by a monodactyle claw in one sex ; and 

 Li-niultts, in which the two anterior legs in one sex 

 are monodactyle. 



LINE^E. A small natural order of plants, separated 

 from Caryophyllea: by M. Decandolle It contains only 

 two genera, viz. Radiula and Linum ; there are only 

 one species of the first, and above forty of the second, 

 among which is the useful Linum nsitaiinsimum. which 

 yields that important article FLAX. The species are 

 herbaceous or snH'mticuse plant?, with simple entire 

 leaves, usually alternate and without stipules, but 

 sometimes with basal glands. The inflorescence is 

 terminal, in racemose corymbs or panicles ; the 

 flowers are regular and united, either blue, white, or 

 yellow, and very fugacious. The Linuis-dre remark- 

 able for the beauty of their flowers, but still more for, 

 as has been already observed, the excellence of the 

 fibre, which, when duly prepared, forms the flax of 

 commerce, whence linen is made. Its seeds are 

 oleaginous, and from them linseed-oil is expressed ; 

 and the residue after expression is the oil-cake upon 

 which oxen are fattened. The seeds also contain a 

 large quantity of bland mucilage, whence their use 

 in decoction as demulcents ; and linseed meal forms 

 one of the best materials for cataplasms. 



The flax used in this country is mostly of foreign 

 growth, for notwithstanding the rewards held out by 

 the legislature to encourage its domestic culture, it is 

 found in well-peopled districts to be an unprofitable 

 investment, not only for its inferior value to corn, but 

 because it is such a scourge to the land on which it is 

 grown. The Radiola* millegrana is a small British 

 annual found on sandy ground. 



LINGU LA (Lamarck), Patella unguis (Linnaeus). 

 This singular mollusc is an instance of the vagaries 

 exhibited by nature in her productions ; and when- 

 ever they occur they give rise to infinite speculation 

 in the minds of naturalists, to reconcile their apparent 

 anomalies with the general laws that govern the 

 structure of other creatures in the same branch of cre- 

 ation. Many of these sports of nature, or monstrosi- 

 ties, if we may presume so to term them, are to be 

 accounted for by local or adventitious circumstances ; 

 but all we know of the greater number of them 'is 

 that they are, and the why rests upon the most con- 

 sistent train of philosophical reasoning that can be 

 exercised in explanation ; one constant conclusion we 

 must always arrive at, that they are all peculiarly 

 constructed for some wise purpose, and form so many 

 additional proofs of infinite wisdom. Without enu- 

 merating any of the circumstantial details handed 

 down to us by Aristotle, Pliny, and the early naturalists, 

 respecting dragons, mermaids, and olher fabulous 

 creatures of that dark era of superstitious ignorance, 

 or quoting instances of a far more recent date, when 

 the good old Gerarde so solemnly affirmed that bar- 

 nacles generated ducks and. geese, we have only 

 to ask ourselves what faith we should have placed in 

 that person who first discovered or described a qua- 

 druped with its head to all appearance similar to that 

 of a bird, as is the fact wiih the Ornithorhynchus or 

 Bradypus platypus, had we not the evidence of our 

 own senses to confirm it ; or could we have credited 

 that this planet was once tenanted with the stupen- 

 dous race of creatures whose fossil remains are daily 

 brought to light by the indefatigable zeal of geologist?, 



and whose existence goes well nigh to shake our faith 

 even with their bones before us. It therefore becomes 

 necessary for every one to pause and reflect, before 

 he pronounces anything impossible in nature, or the 

 dream of a poetic imagination, because he cannot 

 readily fathom the anomalies it presents. Well may 

 it be said that " travellers see strange sights," some of 

 which, acting on an unenlightened mind, or but 

 superficially observed, soon get clothed in fiction by 

 frequent repetition, till at length they are worked up 

 into a marvellous tale, too monstrous to be credited, 

 though founded, in the first instance, upon one of 

 those capricious examples of nature's power. We 

 must not, however, dwell longer on a subject that 

 would lead us into a wider field of speculation than it 

 is our duty here to pursue, but return to the singular 

 mollusc which has given rise to this digression. The 

 Lingtda is strictly a bivalve mollusc, its valves being 

 of an equilateral, subequivalve form, truncated at their 

 upper end, with a slight point in the centre of each, 

 formed by the angular depressed rib which runs along 

 the back of the valves, giving them the appearance 

 of the upYer mandibles of a duck's bill, whence, tin- 

 name of the species called, Lin^u/a anatiiia ; these* 

 valves are covered with a sea-green epidermis, and 

 sometimes attain the size of three inches in length 

 by half an inch in breadth, becoming much narrower 

 or quite pointed opposite the patulous termination ; 

 but it is unlike every other bivalve, inasmuch as there 

 is not the slightest indication of these valves being 

 in any way connected together by the ordinary me- 

 thods of nature. They possess no indications of 

 teeth, hinge, or ligament ; and their union would in 

 vain have been guessed at, had it not been discovered 

 that a junction is effected by means of the pointed 

 ends of the valves being inserted, and vertically fixed 

 in a nbro-gelatinous stem or peduncle, similar to 

 that existing in the anatifa and its congeners. Lin- 

 naeus classed this mollusc with his genus Patella, and 

 a more excusable error cannot be found in the annals 

 of natural history, for had that great master seen no 

 more than one valve of this shell, as some authors 

 imagine, he could only conclude it to be a patella 

 closely allied to those species which have since formed 

 the genus Parmopkora, to which the resemblance is 

 rendered more strong by the valves of the lingula 

 possessing small internal granular callosities, visible 

 in the Parmophora and other genera of Patella: ; but 

 it is equally obvious that had Linnaeus examined 

 numberless specimens unconnected, or not in situ, he 

 would still have found stronger grounds of confirmation 

 in the conclusion he had drawn. Some naturalists have 

 thrown out a hint that a connecting link might be 

 traced between this mollusc and the family Lepidacea ; 

 but an examination of the anatomical structure of 

 both leads to no such result, the fleshy stem being the 

 only character common to each, if we except the long 

 tentacular appendages existing on both sides of the ani- 

 mal's body, and serving as a bait, the organs of smell, or 

 feelers, by means of which their food is discovered and 

 seized, and which are spirally folded within the valves 

 when the animal is in a state of repose, their position 

 being distinctly marked on the internal surface of the 

 valves. Like the Lejndaccti, too, these molluscs are 

 limited to the locomotion afforded by the contraction 

 or expansion of their flexible peduncle ; they cannot 

 remove from place to place, but live and die on the 

 spot which first gave life to their egg or germ. Whe- 

 ther they are found in. congregated families, like the 



