62 GERANIACEvE. 



united carpels and only 5 celled, with 2 seeds banging from 

 the summit of each ; but each cell is incompletely or com- 

 pletely divided into two by a false partition which projects 

 from the back of the carpels, thus becoming 10-celled, 

 Seeds ovate compressed, mucilaginous. — Herbs with a fibrous 

 bark, simple and sessile entire leaves, alternate or often oppo- 

 site, without stymies, and terminal corymbose or panicled 

 flowers. 



1. L. VlRGINIANUM, L. Wild Flax. 



Radical leaves orate and spatulate ; those of the stem linear-lanceolate, alternate ; 

 flowers small, scattered on the corymbose or panicled branches, on very short pe> 

 duncles, tnrned to one side : sepals ovate, pointed, smooth. 



Woods and field?. June, Aug. Biennial or per. Stern 1 to 2 feet high, slender, 

 smooth, leafy, terete. Leaves % inch long, % wide, with 1 distinct vein. Flowers 

 4 to 6 lines in diameter, yellow, on short pedicels. Sepals 1-veined. 



Variety diffusurr. Woods. Stem angnlaT) diffusely branched; branches and lan- 

 ceolate leaves spreading ; flowers very small, yellow. Wet places, along ditches. 

 Quite different in habit. 



2. L. usitatissimum, L. Common Flax. 



Stem branching above; leaves alternate, linear-lanceolate, acute; panicle corym- 

 bose; sepals ovate, acute, 3-veined at the base; petals crenate; capsule roundish, 

 acuminate. 



Cultivated and somewhat naturalized about field?. June, July. Annual. Stem 

 1 to 2 feet high. Leaves distinct 3-veined. Flowers large, purpli*»h-blue. A useful 



!>lant, from the strong fibres of the bark linen is manufactured, and the seeds yield 

 inseed oil, so extensively used in mixing paint, printer's ink, &c. 



ORDER 25. GERAOTACE1E.— Crane's-bill Family. 



Plants with modly regular, hypogynous, pentamcrous flowers, imbricated sepals, 

 and convolu'e petals. Leaves opposite (at least the lower ones), mostly stipulate, 

 petiolate, palmately-veined. Flowers on peduncles, terminal or opposite the leaves, 

 sometimes axillary. Sepals 5, persistent, veined, one sometimes saccate or spurred 

 at base. Petals 5, unguicuh-.te, bypogynous or perigynous. Stamexs usually 

 monodelphous, hypogynous, 2 or 3 times as many as the petals. Fruit formed of 

 earpels cohering around the axis, having a membranaceous pericarp and termina- 

 ted by an indurated style, which finally curves upward carrying the pericarp witU 

 tt. S*u>3 solitary, without albumen. 



1. GERANIUM. Linn. Crane's-bill. 



Gr. geranos, a crane ; the beaked fruit resembling a crane's bilL 



Sepals and petas 5, regular. Stamens 10, all fertile, 

 the alternate ones longer, and with nectariferous scales at the 

 base. Carpels with long awns, at length seperating elas- 

 tically from the summit to the base ; awns smooth internal- 

 ly. — Herbaceous plants, rarely shrubby at base. Pedunchs» 

 l t 2 or 3 flowered. 



