252 LINAGES 



264. LINUM. LINSEED 

 PLAXSEED 



The ripe seed of Li'num usitatis'simum Linne, including not more than 3 per cent, 

 of other harmless fruits, seeds or foreign matter. 



BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS. The common flax is an annual; stem corym- 

 bosely branched at top. Leaves sessile, linear-lanceolate, smooth. Flowers 

 in a corymbose panicle, with sky-blue petals. Pod about the size of a pea, of 

 5 united carpels (into which it splits in dehiscence), and 5-celled, with two 

 seeds hanging from the summit of each cell, which is partly or completely 



FIG. 136. Linum usitatissimum. 



divided into two by a false partition projecting from the back of the carpel, 

 the pod thus becoming lo-celled. 4 



HABITAT. All temperate countries. 



DESCRIPTION OF DRUG. Oblong-ovate, flat, obliquely pointed at one 

 end and blunt at the other. The brown, glossy, polished surface is 

 seen, under the lens, to be marked with fine pits, and to be covered 

 with a transparent mucilaginous epithelium that swells in water. 

 The hilum occupies the slight hollow just below the apex. The em- 

 bryo is oily, whitish, and inodorous. Taste mucilaginous, oily, and 



