182 



UXGLISII BOTAXT. 



Section II.— EU-LINUM. 



Petals not adhcrini^ by tlicir claws. Loaves alternate, scattered, 

 without glands (abortive stipules) at tlieir base. 



SPECIE3 II.— LINUM PERENNE. Unn. 

 Plate CCXC. 

 Linutn anglicum, " Mill." Planch. 

 L. perenne, var. anglicum, Planch, in Hook. Lond. Jour, of Bot. Ser. II. Vol. VII. 



Rootstock woody. Stems very numerous, sub-erect from a 

 decumbent base, simple except at the apex. Leaves strap-shaped, 

 attenuated at each end and acute at the apex, crowded, ascending. 

 Flowers few, in terminal pseudo-racemes, usually combined into 

 irregular corymbs. Two outer sepals obovate, apiculate -with 

 narrow membranous margins ; three inner ones roundish-obovate, 

 sub-truncate, rounded at the apex, scarcely apiculate, with broad 

 membranous margins ; all entire, 5-nerved (rarely only 3-nerved), 

 with only the middle nerve reaching the apex. Petals broadly 

 obovate, four to six times as long as the sepals. Capsule 

 apiculate. 



In rough chalky places. Eare, The only specimens I have 

 seen are from Cambridgeshire, though it has been reported from 

 several other counties. Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Northampton- 

 shire, Salop, Rutlandshii'e or South Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and 

 Durham, are those in which it has most likely been found ; but the 

 species has been so confounded witli L. angustifolium, that little 

 reliance can be placed on book-statements of localities. 



England. Perennial. Summer. 



Stems growing in dense tufts, 1 to 2 feet high, wiry and almost 

 woody and leafless at the base, densely leafy in the middle portion, 

 with the leaves ascending or sub-erect, -^ to f inch long. Elowers 

 rather few, bright cobalt blue, 1 to l:jr inch across, with the petals 

 overlapping each other at the edges. Inner sepals very blunt, 

 sometimes with, but frequently -without, an apiculus. Petals 

 broadly obovate-wedgeshapcd, truncate at the apex, contiguous. 

 Fruit pedicels erect, one to three times as long as the calyx. 

 Capsule globular, scarcely apiculate. Seeds greyish-olive coloured, 

 surrounded by a very narrow wing. Plant deep green, very slightly 

 glaucous, quite glabrous. 



This is one of the species in which the flowers are dimorphous ; 



