GERANIUM FAMILY. 77 



26. LINAGES, FLAX FAMILY. 



A small family, represented here only by the main genus, 



1. LINUM, FLAX. (The classical Greek and Latin name.) Flowers (see 

 Lessons, p. 89, fig. 174, 175, and p. 93, fig. 191) usually opening for only 

 one day, and in sunshine, regular and symmetrical ; the persistent sepals, 

 deciduous petals, slightly monadelphous stamens, and mostly the styles 5, but 

 the latter are sometimes fewer, occasionally partly united : ovary and pod 

 with as many 2-seeded cells as there are styles, or mostly twice as many and 

 one-seeded, each cell being divided more or less by a false partition. Seeds 

 with a mucilaginous coat and a large straight oily embryo. Leaves simple, 

 nearly sessile, and entire. Fl. all summer. 



* Wild species, annuals or scarcely perennials, with small yellow flowers. 

 L. Virginianum, the commonest WILD FLAX, in dry woods, 2 high, 

 with spreading or recurving terete branches at the summit of the stem ; the 

 leaves oblong or lanceolate, only the lower spatulate and opposite; flowers 

 scattered ; styles separate ; pod little larger than a pin's head. 



L. striatum, also common, mostly in boggy grounds, like the first ; but 

 has the branches shorter, scattered along the stem, and sharply 4-angled with 

 intermediate grooves (whence the name) ; most of the stem-leaves opposite and 

 oblong ; flowers more crowded. 



L. SUlcatum, much less common, in dry soil, also has grooved (upright) 

 branches, but the leaves are linear and scattered ; flowers and pods twice as 

 large ; sepals sharp-pointed, 3-nerved and with rough glandular margins ; styles 

 united half-way up. 



# * Cultivated, hardy, herbaceous, with 5 styles and largish handsome flowers. 

 L. USitatissimum, COMMON FLAX. Cult, from Old World, and inclined 

 to run wild in fields ; with narrow lanceolate leaves, corymbose rich blue flow- 

 ers, and pointed sepals. 



L. perenne, PEKENNIAL FLAX. Cult, from Eu. in some varieties, for 

 ornament, wild beyond the Mississippi ; less tall than the foregoing, narrower- 

 leaved ; sepals blunt ; petals sky-blue, sometimes pale, at least towards the 

 base. y. 



L. grandifl.6rum, LARGE-FL. RED FLAX. Cult as an annual, from 

 North Africa ; 1 high, with linear or lanceolate leaves, and showy crimson-red 

 flowers. ~)l 



* * * Cultivated in conservatories, shrubby, with 3 styles and large flowers. 

 L. trigynum, of India, has rather large elliptical leaves, and a succession 

 of large and showy bright-yellow flowers. 



27. GERANIACE^J, GERANIUM FAMILY. 



As now received a large and multifarious order, not to be char- 

 acterized as a whole in any short and easy way, including as it does 

 Geraniums, Nasturtiums, Wood-Sorrels, Balsams, &c., which have 

 to be separately described. 



1. Flowers regular and symmetrical: sepals persistent. Herbs. 



1. OXALIS. Sepals and petals 5, the former imbricated, the latter conTolute in 



the bud. Stamens 10, monadelphous at base, the alternate ones shorter. 

 Styles 5, separate on a 5-celled ovary, which becomes a membranaceous 

 several-seeded pod. Juice sour and watery. Leaves commonly of three 

 obcordate or two-lobed leaflets, which droop at nightfall. Flowers usually 

 open only in sunshine. 



2. LIMNANf HES. Sepals and petals 5, the former valvate, the latter convolute 



in the bud. Glands on the receptacle 5. Stamens 10, separate at the base. 

 Style 1, five-lobed at the apex, rising from the centre of a deeply five-lobed 

 ovary, which in fruit becomes 5 separate thickish and wrinkled akenes. 

 Leaves pinnate ; the leaflet? cut or cleft. 



