104 LINACE^. (FLAX FAMILY.) 



1. STTJARTIA, Catesby. Stuartia. 



Sepals 5, rarely 6, ovate or lanceolate. Petals 5, rarely 6, obovate, crenulate. 

 Stamens monadelphous below. Pod 5-celled. Seeds 1 or 2 in each cell, crus- 

 taceous, anatropous, ascending. Embryo straight, nearly as long as the albu- 

 men : radicle longer than the cotyledons. — Shrubs with membranaceous decid- 

 uous oblong-ovate serrulate leaves, soft-downy beneath, and large short-pedun- 

 cled flowers solitary in their axils. (Named for John Stuart, Lord Bute.) 



1. S. Virginica, Cav. Petals 5 white (l'long); sepals ovate; style 1 ; 

 stigma 5- toothed; pod globular, blunt; seeds not margined. (S. Malachode'n- 

 dron, L.) — Woods, Virginia and southward. 



S. pentagyna, L'Her., with cream-colored flowers, 5 styles, and an angled 

 and pointed pod, may be found in the Alleghanies of Southern Virginia. 



2. GORDONIA, Ellis. Loblolly Bay. 



Sepals 5, rounded, concave. Petals 5, obovate. Stamens 5-adelphous, one 

 cluster adhering to the base of each petal. Style 1. Pod ovoid, 5-valved; the 

 valves separating from the persistent axis ; cells 2 - 8-seeded. Seeds pendulous. 

 Embryo straightish, with a short radicle, and thin longitudinally plaited cotyle- 

 dons. — Shrubs or small trees, with large and showy white flowers on axillary 

 peduncles. (Dedicated by Dr. Garden to his "old master, Dr. James Gordon of 

 Aberdeen," and by Ellis to a London nurseryman of the same name.) 



I. G. Lasianthus, L. (Loblolly Bay.) Leaves coriaceous and per- 

 sistent, lanceolate-oblong, narrowed at the base, minutely serrate, smooth and 

 shining ; pod pointed ; seeds winged above. Swamps' near the coast. Virginia 

 and southward. May - July. — Petals l£' long. 



Order 23. L.INACEJE. (Flax Family.) 



Herbs (rarely shrubs) with the regular and symmetrical hypogynous flow- 

 ers 4-6-merous throughout, strongly imbricated calyx and convolute petals, 

 the 5 stamens monadelphous at the base, and an S-10-seeded pod, having 

 twice as many cells as there are styles. Represented by the genus, 



1. LINUM, L. Flax. 



Sepals (persistent), petals, stamens, and styles 5, regularly alternate with each 

 other. Pod of 5 united carpels (into which it splits in dehiscence) and 5-celled, 

 vvith 2 seeds hanging from the summit of each ; but each cell is partly or com- 

 pletely divided into two by a false partition which projects from the back of the 

 carpel, thus becoming 10-celled. Seeds anatropous, mucilaginous, flattened, 

 containing a large embryo with plano-convex cotyledons. — Herbs, with a tough 

 fibrous bark, simple and sessile entire leaves (alternate or often opposite), Avith- 

 out stipules, but often with glands in their place, and with corymbose or pani- 

 cked flowers. Corolla usually ephemeral. (The classical name of the Flax.) 

 * Indigenous species, glabrous, l°-3° high, with yellow flowers, in summer. 



1. L. Virginianum, L. Stem erect from the base and with the corym- 

 bose spreading or recurving branches terete and even ; leaves oblong or lanceolate. 



