LINACEJE. 



243 



narrow panic'e; calyx-lobes ovate, obtuse or with a very short point; 

 petals rose-purple, 5 to 9 lines long; carpels smooth, promptly 

 dehiscent. 



Dry inner South Coast Range hills: Mt. Diablo, acc. to Greene; 

 Paehcco Pass, Bolander, and southward to San Bernardino Co. 

 June-July. 



6. SIDA L. 



Ours low yellowish scurfy-tomentose perennial herbs. Pedicels 

 articulated. Involucel of 1 to 3 slender deciduous bracelets. Flowers 

 cream-color. Carpels 1-seeded. indehiscent or 2-valved. Seeds pendu- 

 lous. (Greek name used by Theophrastus for a species of Water-lily.) 



1. S. hederacea (Dougl.) Torr. Stems from deep-seated tap- 

 roots, decumbent, more or less branching, £ to 1 ft. long; leaves 

 round-reniform or ovate, dentate or serrate, £ to 2 in. broad, on 

 petioles £ to 1 in. long; ^flowers pediceled, axillary, solitary or in 

 small clusters; calyx-lobes acuminate; petals Jin. long; carpels 6 to 

 10, triangular, attached by a straight edge to the slender axis. 



Abundant in subsaline soils throughout the Sacramento, San 

 Joaquin, and South Coast Range va.leys. May-Sept. 



47. LINACE/E. Flax Family. 



Annual or perennial herbs. Leaves alternate, or sometimes oppo- 

 site, small, entire, without stipules or these sometimes replaced by 

 a e;land. Flowers mostly in cymose panicles, perfect, regular, in 

 ours 5-merous. Peta's distinct, very quickly falling. Stamens 

 slightly united at base. Styles 2 to 5, distinct. Cells <»f the 

 superior ovary as many as the styles, or twice as many by the 

 formation of a fal*e division wall from the back of each cell. False 

 partitions frequently not complete. Fruit a capsule, splitting through 

 the false partitions and frequently also septicidal. 



1. LINUM L. Flax. 

 Our only genus. (Ancient Latin name of these plants.) 



Perennial; styles 5; flowers blue; petals without ventral appendages . . 



1. L. Ltwisii. 



Annual; styles 3; petals commonly with appendages. 

 Leaves closely margined with stipitate glands; pedicels long, solitary . . 



2. L. ad-.nophyllum. 



Leaves entire. 



Pedicels elongated and flowers mostly solitary; stem diffusely panicu 

 late above. 



Flowers about 3 lines long, on straight pedicels . . 3. L. spcrgulinum. 

 Flowers about 2 lines long, on nodding pedicels . . 4. L. micraytthum. 

 Pedicels short and flowers in rather close clusters. 

 Flowers white, pink or rose-purple. 



stem paniculately branched; sepals glabrous. .5. L. Californicum. 



Stem shortly branched at top; sepals pubescent. 6. L. congestion. 

 Flowers yellow 7. L. Brtwtri. 



1. L. Lewisii Pursh. Blue Flax. Herbage glabrous; stems 

 several from a woody crown, erect, thickly clothed with leaves, 

 simple below the corymbosely branched summit; leaves linear- 



