LETTER XXXVIII. 



THE FLAX TRIBE ABORTIONS LINEN 



THE RUE TRIBE. 



Plate XXXIX. 



Among the plants that are grown in fields, for their 

 utility, the prettiest, I think, is Flax, with its nodding 

 blossoms, and its light-blue petals, which, day after 

 dav, during- the flowerinof season, continue to strew the 

 soil with azure fragments. It was once considered a 

 member of the Chickweed Tribe, but if you compare it 

 with the species of that group, you will wonder, not 

 that it is now separated, but that it should ever have 

 been associated with them. 



In the first place, its stems and leaves are quite dif- 

 ferent ; the joints of the former are not swollen, and 

 the latter are not opposite {Plate XXXIX. 1.^^- !•)• 

 Secondly, its calyx has the sepals in a broken whorl 

 {fig. 2), two external, and three internal, which is not 

 at all the character of the Chickweeds ; moreover, the 

 ovary contains ten cells, in each of which is one pen- 

 dulous ovule {fig, 5.) ; and finally the seed-vessel 

 splits into ten sharp-pointed valves ( fig. 6.). These 

 circumstances are considered sufficient to elevate the 

 Flax into the type of a natural assemblage, consisting 

 of scarcely any other genus ; and accordingly the Flax 



VOL. II. K 



