THE LILY FAMILY 107 



forms are much more richly tinted than the ordinary wild 

 varieties. The bronze-leaved flax is perhaps the finest of 

 those usually found in gardens. A variety, said to come from 

 the Chatham Islands, has, along with a tinge of bronze in the 

 leaves, beautiful crimson, almost translucent margins, and is 

 much more pendulous and graceful than the ordinary stiff 

 bayonet-like form. Variegated sports are common. One 

 of them at least appears to have originated in the Jardin des 

 Plantes at Paris. The leaf is linear-lanceolate in shape with 

 an acute point, and is folded longitudinally from tip to base, so 

 that at about a third of its length from the point, the two 

 upper and inner surfaces of the blade come together, and 

 throughout half the length of the leaf are in close contact. 

 At the butt of the leaf, the two halves are again separated by 

 the younger leaves, which are ensheathed by the older ones. 

 Large quantities of gum, which have been a source of great 

 difficulty to rope-makers, are secreted between the halves of 

 the blade. The leaves are arranged in fans. In a year or two, 

 after the fan has produced its flower, it has withered away. 



The minute structure of the foliage is no less remarkable, 

 than its form and general appearance. There is perhaps no 

 leaf on the face of the earth, that has greater powers of 

 withstanding tension than this one. The blade is intersected 

 longitudinally, by large numbers of plates of strong-walled 

 fibres, placed transversely to the breadth of the leaf. Between 

 each pair of plates there are strands of similar fibres, running 

 along the surface immediately below the cuticle (skin). Thus 

 a considerable amount of rigidity, accompanied by most 

 unusual strength, is developed in the leaves. The rigidity 

 enables them, in spite of their length, to stand vertically ; and 

 their great strength prevents them from being whipped to 

 pieces by the wind. The tenacity of the fibres arises chiefly 

 from the fact that the cells of which they are composed are 

 dry, hard, filled only with air, and have very much thickened 

 cell- walls. Schwendener has calculated that the sustaining 



