L I N E M . 67 



6. ABUTILON, Camerarius. Herbs or shrubs with axillary solitary 

 mostly yellow flowers. Involucel 0. Stamineal tube simple, anther- 

 iferous at summit. Styles 5 or more, with capitate stigmas. Fruit 

 truncate-globose or -conical; carpels dehiscent, several-seeded. 



1. A. Thbophbasti, Medic. A stout erect branching annual, 2— 6 ft. 

 high, the herbage green but velvety-pubescent and almost oily to the 

 touch: leaves round-cordate, acuminate, crenate-dentate, 3 — 6 in. long, 

 on petioles of 2 — 5 in.; peduncles axillary, erect, shorter than the petiole : 

 fl. small, orange-yellow: carpels about 15, inflated, obliquely birostrate, 

 pubescent, 3-seeded. — A common weed in cultivated grounds at the 

 East; reported as established about Santa Eosa. 



7. HIBISCUS, Diosc. Stout herbs, with large and showy axillary 

 and solitary blowers. Involucel of many bractlets. Stamineal column 

 antheriferous below the summit; above naked and truncate or 5-toothed. 

 Styles united; stigmas 5, capitate. Carpels united into a 5-celled loculi- 

 cidal capsule; cells several-seeded. 



1. H^ Californicns, Kell. Perennial, stout, erect, branching, 5—7 

 ft. high, velvety-pubescent: leaves cordate-ovate, acuminate, coarsely 

 but not deeply toothed, 3 — 5 in. long, exceeding the petioles: peduncle 

 jointed above the middle, 2 — 3 in. long, 1-flowered: calyx 1 in. long, 

 cleft to the middle, the lobes acute: corolla 3 — 4 in. long, yellowish or 

 cream-color, with dark purple center: capsule 1 in. long, acute velvety- 

 pubescent: seeds a line in diameter, globose, striate and tuberculate- 

 roughened. — In swampy places along the lower San Joaquin. 



Okdjsr xxiii. L I N E /E . 



A small order, comprising little besides the one genus 

 LINUM, Vergil (Flax). Herbs with tough fibrous bark, alternate 

 entire leaves without stipules or with glandular organs in the place of 

 them, and cymose-panicled very regular and symmetrical 5-merous 

 flowers. Sepals imbricate, persistent. Petals convolute, fugacious. 

 Stamens monadelphous at the very base. Styles 2, 3 or 5, often united 

 below. Ovary of as many carpels as styles, each more or less divided 

 into 2 cells by a partition proceeding from the dorsal suture. Fruit 

 capsular, septicidally dehiscent. Seeds 1 in each half-cell, ovate, com- 

 pressed, mucilaginous when moistened; embryo large; albumen thin. 



* Flowers }4 — 1 "*■ broad, blue; sepals not glandular-margined. 



1. L. usitatissimum, L. Annual, glabrous, glaucous, 1 — 2 ft. high, 

 simple up to the ample inflorescence: sepals oval, short-acuminate, 3- 

 carinate-nerved at base, the inner scarious-margined and ciliate: petals 

 broad-cuneiform, blue, with deeper veins, % ™- long: capsule round- 



