52 PLANTS: THEIR NATURAL GROWTH 



PLATE 34. 



" To mark His presence in the mighty bow 

 That spans the clouds, as in the tints minute 

 Of tiniest flower : to hear His awful voice 

 In thunder speak, and whisper in the gale : 

 To know and feel His care for all that lives : — 

 'Tis this that makes the barren waste appear 

 A fruitful field, each grove a paradise." — Grahame. 



The first of our illustrations, fig. 279, is devoted to a representation of the natural growth 

 of the Linum Jlavum, or Yellow Flax; figs. 280 and 281 being side views of the opening bud 

 and fully expanded flower, while, in fig. 285, we have an ornamental adaptation of the plant. 



The Yellow Flax, though not indigenous to England, being one of our garden flowers 

 exclusively, has a claim on our attention, we think, from its admirable features as an ornamentist's 

 plant, the leaves being simple and good in form, the general growth pleasing in itself and well 

 defined, and the flowers simple and bold in character. The plant is a hardy perennial : it was 

 first introduced into England from Germany, where it is indigenous, in the year 1792. In its 

 native country it is one of the plants found amongst the undergrowth in coppices and hedgerows 

 on mountainous ground. The Yellow Flax flowers freely during June, July, and August ; the 

 whole plant is ordinarily from nine to twelve inches high. A very similar plant to this, though 

 more delicate in form and constitution, may, from time to time, be met with in green-houses ; it 

 is a native of the Levant, and is known botanically as the L. arboreum. 



The English species of Flax are all of a very ornamental character, and very similar in 

 general form to the plant here figured. The L. catharticum throws up a mass of very small 

 flowers of a pure white, the flowers of the L. augustifolium being of a delicate shade of blue, and 

 those of the remaining species, the L. perenne and the L. usitatissimum, of a rich purple blue. 

 The latter is an especially ornamental plant, and is not uncommonly met with in corn-fields. It 

 furnishes the flax and linseed of commerce. The word linum is derived from the Celtic lin (a 

 thread), and obviously refers to the value of its fibre in manufacture, the stem, after maceration, 

 furnishing the strong thread used in the fabrication of linen. This allusion to its commercial value 

 is seen, too, in its familiar English name, flax being derived from the old Qx&cva.2iV\. fiechten, to plait or 

 weave together ; hence the modern German name for the plant is Flacks. Other languages curiously 

 agree on the same point : thus, the plant in France and Sweden is lin ; in Portugal, linho ; in 

 Spain and Italy, lino ; in Russia, leonn ; in Holland, vlas. Flax is interesting as being probably 

 the first material used in textile fabrics, mention of it being made at a very early period in the 

 Bible. Amongst the ancient Egyptians it furnished the mummy-wrappings, and was largely 

 exported to other countries. The various processes of manufacture, the preparatory steeping in 

 water, the after-beating of the stems, spinning of twine, and the ultimate weaving of it into cloth, 

 are all graphically represented in the tomb paintings of Thebes. 



The remaining figures, Nos. 282, 283, 284, illustrate the natural growth of the Geranium 

 lucidum, or shining Crane's-bill, and its adaptation to art-work. The present plant is one of the 

 commoner species of Geranium, growing, as it does, very freely on hedge-banks, rocks and walls, 

 though it is not found in the northern counties of Scotland. It flowers during May, June, July, and 

 August. The stems are very britde, swollen at the joints, and spreading in growth. Both leaves 

 and stems are very glossy, hence the appropriate familiar English name. The whole plant, when in 

 exposed situations, frequently turns a brilliant crimson, and then presents a very beautiful appear- 

 ance, as the colour is not, like most changes of tint, the forerunner of speedy decay, but remains for 

 many weeks, the plant blossoming, and being in all ways apparently as healthy as in its earlier and 

 verdant days. The same peculiarity is seen in the Herb-Robert (G. Rober'tianum), an allied species. 

 This rich brilliancy of colour renders these two plants very conspicuous amongst the surrounding" 

 herbage, and will greatly assist in their identification by any of our readers to whom they are at pre- 

 sent unknown. The leaves and flowers of the shining Crane's-bill, it will be noticed, both grow in pairs. 



Even in so apparently simple a matter as the stem, the eye, on cultivating habits of obser- 

 vation, soon learns to discriminate several marked varieties of texture and consistency ; thus, while 

 in the present plant it is very brittle, in others it is exceedingly rigid; in some, as in 'Cn^ Cacti, 

 the stem is very soft and succulent ; in others, again, woody and hard. In many plants the stern 

 is smooth, in others downy, hairy, or prickly ; or the surface may be covered with a kind of bloom, 

 as in several kinds of cabbage, or spotted, as in the Hemlock (Conium maculatum), or the 

 Cheer op hy Hum temulentum. In some instances plants have their stems fluted, so as to give a 

 striped or chanelled efiect ; the Fool's-parsley (yEthusa cynapium) is a very good illustration ■ 

 while in some plants the ridges are much more conspicuous, and the stem appears deeply grooved] 

 as in the Parsnip (Pastinaca saliva). 



