THE NARROW-LEAVED AND CATHARTIC FLAX— continued. 
Italy and imported by those of Switzerland for the manufacture of fishing-lines and 
nets ; but that the larger annual species L. usitalissimum Linn6 is, perhaps, wild in 
south-west Asia, has been cultivated in Assyria and Egypt for 4,000 or 5,000 years, 
and was introduced into northern Europe by the Turanian Finns and into the south 
of the continent by the western Aryans. The Stone-Age lake-dwellers reaped their 
perennial many-stemmed Flax, whilst the ancient Egyptians and the Latins in the 
time of Pliny rooted up their annual crop ; and whilst the name Flax belongs to 
the Teutonic languages of the north, the Greek \ivov, linon, Latin linum, and Celtic 
llin are represented in all the Aryan languages of Central and Southern Europe. 
The annual, generally unbranched, Linum usitalissimum Linne, with ovate sepals, 
and capsules seven or eight millimetres across which do not burst when ripe and 
have smooth partitions, only occurs as an escape from cultivation in Britain ; and in 
fact is not known wild with much certainty anywhere. A form known as L. crepitans 
Boeninghausen ( L . humile Miller), smaller, more branched, with capsules bursting 
suddenly when ripe and with hairy partitions, seems more certainly wild in south-west 
Asia, and is much closer in character to our Narrow-leaved Flax. This last, Linum 
anguslifolium Hudson, seems truly wild on dry, sandy, and chalky soils chiefly in the 
south of England. It is generally perennial, sending up many stems : its pale lilac- 
blue flowers do not exceed three-quarters of an inch in diameter, and the sepals are 
elliptical and three-ribbed. The much rarer L. perenne Linne, with larger, bluer 
flowers, has obovate five-ribbed sepals. 
The slender, little white-flowered Cathartic Flax ( Linum catharticum Linne) is 
easily recognised, its thread-like, widely-forking stems being familiar objects in dry 
pastures or heaths, while it is exceptional among Flaxes in having its leaves in 
opposite pairs. Johnson, in his edition of Gerard’s “ Herball ” (1633), gives 
interesting accounts of how Turner, visiting Gesner, about 1540, described to him 
the rustic use of this species in England as a purgative ; and of how John Goodyer 
first heard its popular name Mil-mountaine, and its use in an infusion of white wine, 
from a Winchester apothecary, in 1617. 
The flowers of the Flaxes being generally homogamous, self-pollination would 
seem in most species to be at least possible ; but they secrete honey, and the larger, 
blue-flowered forms are freely visited by various kinds of flying insects. Linum 
perenne Linne and many exotic species are dimorphously heterostyled, and in some 
of these cases no seed is set unless the flower is pollinated with pollen from one of 
the other type. 
The form of the seed often constitutes a useful distinction between allied 
species, and whilst those of Linum usitatissimum are pointed, those of L. angustifolium 
are slightly hooked at the apex. 
