TAN ACE JE. 57 



discoverod iu tropical "Westeru Africa. The Anisandenias have only 

 ■ been observed in the mountains of India ; Ixonanthes in tropical 

 South-Western Asia. Aneuhphus is fi'om tropical Western Africa. 

 The genera Erijtliroxylon^ Hugonia, Ochthocosmiis, and Liniim are 

 common to both worlds. In counting the species of these four 

 genera, we find in all about twenty-three American to ninety-foiu* 

 belonging to the old World. In the genus Linum, the species are 

 very unequally spread in all regions of the globe/ but they are 

 met with fi-om the tropical zones to the coldest regions of North 

 America, Asia, and Em-ope, and also from the South of Africa to 

 New Zealand. The common Flax is cultivated in cold and in 

 warm regions, as in Egypt, where it is possible to water it. Its 

 culture on the banks of the Nile is most ancient, since we find it 

 in the stuffs which wrap the mummies and in the hypogeum paint- 

 ings. The Hebrews, Celts, and Germans planted it to make cloth. 

 Its name would seem to point to temperate Europe as the place of 

 its origin ; - yet it has been said to be of Eastern origin,^ and also to 

 grow spontaneously in Central Russia and towards the Caspian Sea.* 

 It appears in its wild state South of the Caucasus. L. Rûdiola grows 

 in the Orkneys and Norway, and is found as far south as tropical 

 Africa.'' L. catharticum spreads through all Europe, from Southern 

 Italy to Iceland ; L. gallicum, from France to Abyssinia f the last 

 has been introduced into Australia.'' 



The affinity of the Lincœ with the Geraniaceœ is so close that some 

 authors have united the two groups. The Oxalideœ have sometimes 

 been ranged among the Linaceœ. Of the Linece^ Bentham and 

 Hooker ® say, ' ' connected by authors sometimes with the Malvaceœ 

 and Cari/ophyllece, sometimes with the Geraniaceœ, they difi'er 

 clearly from the two former families by the situation of the ovules, 

 and from the latter by their non-lobed ovaries ; and they are 



I Planchon has given a general table of their liter ex Oriente ortmn"). 



geographical distribution and that of aU the ■■ Ledeb. Fl. Boss. i. 425. 



Linaceœ then known {loc. cit. opposite page ° Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. i. 268. 



599.) « LECoa. Gêogr. Bot. v. 316. 



= A. DC. Géogr. Sot. Itais. 390, 833. ? Benth. Fl. Austral, i. 283. 



'■' Pl. in Sook. Jourii. loc. cit. 185 (" rerosimi- * Om. 211. 

 VOL. v. I 



