LINUM TRIGYNUM. 
(Thiee-styled Flax.) 
Class. Older. 
PENTANURIA. PENTAGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
LINAGES. 
Generic Character. —Calyx in five parts. Corolla 
consisting also of five entire portions, obtuse. Fila^ 
mcnts generally five in number, rarely three. Anthers 
arrow-shaped. Capsules ten-celled. 
Specific Character.— p;a»<i sufi"ruticose, growing 
from two to three feet high. Stem erect, smooth, pale 
green, slightly tinged with brown. Leaves alternate, 
entire, extipulate, oblong, acute, smooth. Calyx per- 
sistent, five-cleft ; segments acute, pale j'ellowisli- 
green, semi-transparent, streaked with purple. Corolla 
funnel-shaped. Petals five, bright orange-yellow, with 
numerous purple veins ; throat of the tube deep 
orange. Stamens five, inserted in the base of the calyx, 
shorter than the tube of the corolla. Pistils three, 
larger than the stamens. 
Seeds of this attractive species of Linum were received by Major Francis, 
Madden Hall, and, with many other seeds and bulbs, were presented to his brother, 
R. Hall, Esq., of Narrow Water House, Warren Point, Ireland, in whose stove 
it flowered about December, 1837, and to whose kindness we are indebted for the 
present figure. 
It has, however, been long known in the stoves of this country, for we find, in 
Dr. Smith''s Exotic Botany for 1785, a figure of it, w^hich is stated to have been 
taken from a plant that flov/ered a short time previously in the stove of the Hon. 
Charles Greville, at Paddington. Although it will thus be perceived that the 
plant has been cultivated in England for more than fifty years, it is at present but 
rarely met with ; yet, as it produces its flowers during the three winter months, 
and as those are highly beautiful, very abundant, and remain expanded a long time, 
and as the plant is likewise very easily propagated and cultivated, it merits a much 
more extended circulation than it has yet received, and is undoubtedly a most 
desirable and valuable stove plant. 
It grows freely in a compost of equal parts of heath-mould, decayed leaves, 
and hght loam, provided it be carefully potted, and judiciously watered ; for as the 
roots are small, they cannot endure any immoderate supply of water. It may be 
readily multiplied by cuttings of the half-ripened wood, planted in the same or a 
rather more sandy soil, and plunged in a gentle hotbed, under a hand-glass. 
