32 Linum Letvisii. 



river it is an annual, and on the Missouri a perennial. The hark 

 of this species possesses the same kind of tough fibres as com- 

 mon flax ; and, as under cultivation it appears to be perennial, 

 it would seem to be worth attention. The Missouri Indians, Mr. 

 Nuttall informs me, are in the habit of making lint and wadding for 

 their guns from its bark. Hence, as a native vegetable, it promises 

 to be useful by its abundance in the rich and luxuriant soils of the 

 western countries, in which it is indigenous. That botanist has sup- 

 posed the plant to be identical with L. perenne, of Europe. Yet it 

 differs from that species in its abundant, crowded foliage, still more 

 in being entirely glaucous From common flax it differs in the 

 same characters, yet such is its strong resemblance to that species, 

 that it has been mistaken for itby some,in its native situations * The 

 specimen here figured was raised from seeds brought by Mr Nuttall, 

 and was a good sample of the wild plant. 



Fig. 1. A flowering specimen, the natural size. 2. Apetal. 3. A cap- 

 sule. 



*On comparing the present plant with fine specimens of Linum perenne, in the extensive 

 herbarium of the Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil, just received from France, I observe that in that 

 species the calix leaves are only acute — in L. Lewisii, they are acuminated, particularly on 

 the mature capsule ; the branch leaves are much broader than those of L. Lewisii, and 

 broader than the cauline leaves of the same plant, and more acuminate, rather mucronate. In 

 habit, however, there appears the most conspicuous difference. L. perenne is a larger plant, 

 not glaucous, and less leafy than the Lewisii ; the seeds are of a paler colour. In reality, L. 

 usitatissimum, L. perenne and L. Lewisii, are much alike, and in this genus the specific 

 characters are not very strongly marked. The general physiognomy seems more discrimi- 

 native than any definite character in calix or leaves. 



