XINACEiE. 137 



and warmer regions of the globe, but chiefly abundant in the Mediterranean 

 region and western Asia. 



Flowers small, white. Lower leaves opposite 4. Cathartic F. 



Flowers blue. Leaves all alternate. 

 Koot annual. Sepals pointed. 



Stem erect. Leaves lanceolate. Petals 7 or 8 lines long ... 1. Common F. 

 Stem decumbent. Leaves short and linear. Petals not 6 lines 



long 3. FaleF. 



Rootstock perennial. 



Sepals obtuse. Petals deep blue, 7 or 8 lines long 2. Perennial F. 



Sepals pointed. Petals pale blue, not 6 lines long 3. Fale F, 



The L. flavwm, a south European perennial, with yellow flowers, and 

 some other exotic species, are to be met with in our gardens. 



1. Common Flax. Iiintim usitatissimum, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1357. Flax. Linseed.) 



A tall, erect annual, perfectly glabrous, and usually branched only at the 

 top. Leaves alternate, erect, narrow-lanceolate, pointed and entire, ^ to 1^ 

 inches long. Flowers of a rich blue, in a loose terminal corymb. Sepals 

 ovate or lanceolate, all pointed. Petals obovate, entire or shghtly crenate, 

 7 or 8 Unes long. Capsule globular or shghtly depressed. 



An extensively cultivated plant, whose origin is unknown, but it readily 

 sows itself as a weed of cultivation in Europe, Asia, and other parts of the 

 world, and as such may be occasionally met with in some parts of England. 

 Fl. summer. 



2. Perennial Flax. Iiinum perenne, Linn. 



(Eng. Bot. t. 40.) 



A very variable plant, sometimes resembling much the common F., but it 

 forms a perennial stock, either tufted or roothke ; the stems are usually more 

 slender and not so erect, and sometimes quite procumbent, the leaves smaller 

 and narrower, and the sepals, or at least the inner ones, are always obtuse. 



In dry chiefly hmestone pastures and waste lands, or sometimes in rich 

 mountain pastm-es, varying much according to soil or situation, and widely 

 diffused over central and southern Europe, and southern Russian Asia, but 

 not extending into northern Germany. Occurs in some of the eastern 

 counties of England, and possibly in southern Ireland, but the pale F. is 

 often mistaken for it. Fl. summer. 



3. Pale Flax. Iiinum angustifolium, Huds. 



(Eng. Bot. t. 381) 



Usually a perennial, with the decumbent stems and narrow leaves of 

 some varieties of the perennial F., but with the pointed sepals of the 

 common F. It is also occasionally annual only, but always differs from 

 both the preceding species in its much smaller pale blue flowers, the petals 

 seldom exceeding 5 Unes in length. 



In waste places, chiefly in hmestone districts, veiy common in southern 

 Europe, and extending up western France to southern and western England, 

 and to Ireland. Fl. summer. 



4. Cathartic Flax. Iiinum catharticum, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 382.) 

 A very slender, erect, or shghtly decumbent glabrous annual, from 3 or 4 



h2 



