LINACE^]. 



149 



1. Common Flax. Linum usitatissimum, Linn. (Fig. 187.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 1357. Flax. 



A tall, erect annual, perfectly glabrous, 

 and usually branched only at the top. 

 Leaves alternate, erect, narrow-lanceo- 

 late, pointed and entire, ^ to 1\ inches 

 long. Flowers of a rich blue, in a loose 

 terminal corymb. Sepals ovate or lanceo- 

 late, all pointed. Petals obovate, entire 

 or slightly crenate, 7 or 8 lines long. 

 Capsule globular or slightly depressed. 



An extensively cultivated plant, whose 

 origin is unknown, but it readily sows 

 itself as a weed of cultivation in Europe, 

 Asia, and other parts of the world, and 

 as such may be occasionally met with in 

 some parts of England. Fl. summer. 



Linseed.) 



Fig. 187. 



2. Perennial Flax. Linum perenne, Linn. (Fig. 188.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 40.) 



A very variable plant, sometimes re- 

 sembling much the common F., but it 

 forms a perennial stock, either tufted or 

 root-like ; the stems are usually more 

 slender and not so erect, and sometimes 

 quite procumbent, the leaves smaller and 

 narrower, and the sepals, or at least the 

 inner ones, are always obtuse. 



In dry chiefly limestone pastures and 

 waste lands, or sometimes in rich moun- 

 tain pastures, varying much according to 

 soil or situation, and widely diffused over 

 central and southern Europe, and south- 

 ern Russian Asia, but not extending into 

 northern Germany. Occurs in some of 

 the eastern counties of England, and pos- 

 sibly in southern Ireland, but the pale 

 F. is often mistaken for it. Fl. summer. 



Fig. 188. 



