Linum Lewisii. 31 



usitatissimum . Petals flax-flower-blue beneath, darker above, streak- 

 ed with deep ultramarine-blue towards the bage ; claws yellow, sta- 

 mens enclosed in the kind of tube formed by the claws of the petals, 

 and the filaments only appearing when the flower is fully expanded. 

 Anthers straw-yellow, filaments white below, blue towards the top. 

 Styles white, stigma yellow. Calicine scales ovate, acute, (or under 

 a lens acuminated) marginated,and attenuated at base, with a pellu- 

 cid line in the centre, and somewhat dotted with diaphanous spots 

 under a lens. A native of the banks of the Missouri and Red river, 

 Kiamesia plains, and the vallies of the Rocky Mountains, growing 

 always on the declivities of water courses. Flowers in July. 



The generic term Linum, *«.», of Dioscorides, Theophrastus and 

 other Greek authors, is derived from *»*», to hold, owing to the 

 tenacity of the fibres of the bark, a property common to all the 

 species hitherto discovered, and one rendering this genus of plants 

 of inestimable value, in commerce and economy. This pretty species 

 of flax was discovered by the late captain Lewis, in his travels with 

 captain Clark, under the direction and at the expense of the govern- 

 ment of the United States. He found it growing in the vallies of 

 the Rocky Mountains, and on the banks of the Missouri. Pursh, who 

 first described this plant, affixed the name of captain Lewis to it, in 

 commemoration of the discovery. Mr. Nuttall informs me that it 

 begins to appear about fort Mandan, becoming more abundant to- 

 wards the mountains, but that he did not see it lower down on the 

 Missouri than the Mandan village; and on the banks of Red river, 

 near the plains of Kiamesia river it is most abundant; that near Red 



