II LINAGES 117 



tinctly quadrangular. The leaves have numerous pellucid 

 dots, and a few black ones. The sepals are pointed. 



H. humifusum. — The stems are trailing. In bad 

 ^Yeather the flowers do not open, and may be described 

 as pseudo-cleistogamous. 



H. pulchrum. — The stem is upright and slender; the 

 leaves broadly cordate, and clasping the stem. The 

 broad and obtuse sepals are fringed at the top with 

 black glandular teeth. 



H. montanum. — The sepals are fringed with black 

 glandular teeth, and lanceolate. The leaves are ovate or 

 oblong, with or without pellucid dots. 



H. hirsutum has downy stems. The leaves are hairy 

 underneath, with pellucid dots. The sepals are narrow, 

 with rather long glandular teeth. 



H. Elodes. — This is a small creeping bog plant 6-8 

 inches long. Like many other species with a similar 

 habit, it is clothed with loose, woolly, whitish hairs, 

 which probably serve to protect the stomata from being 

 clogged with moisture. Each of the petals has at the 

 base a divided scale, which perhaps secretes honey, and 

 at the base of the stamen clusters are small divided 

 glands, which are pressed against the ovary and perhaps 

 also secrete honey. 



LINACEiE 



LiNCJM (Flax) 



Homogamous flowers, with concealed honey. The 

 parts are in fives. Each of the five cells of the ovary is 

 divided into two by a nearly complete partition. The 

 seeds, as we know from the familiar linseed poultice, 

 secrete a mucilaginous, adhesive substance, which exudes 

 freely as soon as the seeds are moistened. This is use- 

 ful to the plant in glueing the seeds to the damp earth. 

 The flowers in many species are dimorphous, in some 

 even trimorphous. In some species they close up at 



