PENTANDRIA. PENTAGYNIA. Linum. 407 
edge. Woodw. (Blossoms purplish blue., terminal, clustered. Plant 
about six inches high. E.) 
Matted Sea Lavender or Thrift. (Muddy sea-shores, and salt 
marshes. E.) At Wells, Norfolk, abundantly. Mr. Woodward. At 
Blakeney. Messrs. Crowe and Pitchford. (Tydd Marsh, Cambridge¬ 
shire. Skrimshire, in JBot. Guide. On the salt marshes near Frieston, 
Liverton, &c.; also near Fosdyke Wash, Lincolnshire, it grows in the 
level grassy land where the sheep bite close. Sir J. Banks. Mull of Gal¬ 
loway. Mr. Goldie, in Hook. Scot. E.) P. July—Aug. 
LI'NUM.* Cal . five-leaved : Petals five : Caps, ten-valved; 
ten-celled : Seeds solitary. 
(1) Leaves alternate. 
L. usitatis'simum. (Calyx-leaves ovate, acute, three-ribbed: petals 
scolloped: leaves spear-shaped: stem mostly solitary. E.) 
Curt. 326— (E. Bot. 1357. E.) — Kniph. 9— Ludw. 14s4>^—Blackw. 160. 2— 
Woodv. \\i.—Fuchs. 471— J. B. iii. 451— Matth. 414— Bod. 533— Lob. 
Obs. 225. 1— Ger. Em. 556— H. Ox. v. 26. row 2. 1— Lonic. 153. 2— 
Blackw. 160. 1— Trag. 353. 
Stem (slender, full eighteen inches high. Lower leaves short and blunt. 
Flowers several, in a corymbose panicle, large. E.) cylindrical. Petals 
sky blue, striated with deeper-coloured lines. Filaments united at the 
base. Styles blue, thicker towards the top. The inner edge of the calyx 
a little fringed. ( Seeds elliptical, polished. E.) 
Common Linseed or Flax. (Welsh: Llin cyffredin. Gaelic: Lion. E.) 
Corn-fields and sandy pastures in Dorsetshire and Devonshire. Near 
Cawston, Norfolk. Mr. Bryant. Corn-fields, Ripton, Huntingdonshire. 
Mr. Woodward. Downs, old pastures, and corn-fields, near to commons 
about Redruth and Trelubbus, Cornwall. Mr. Watt. (At Baydales, 
near Darlington. Mr. Winch. About Kennerley, Isle of Wight. Mr.W. 
D. Snooke. E.) ~ A. July.f 
* (From ^ tvov, thread : alluding to its general appropriation both in ancient and modern 
times : and thence also the English trivial, and the manufactured article. E.) 
t This valuable plant originally came from those parts of Egypt which are exposed to the 
inundations of the Nile, where it has been a staple article time immemorial. Exod. ix. 31. 
(It has long been generally cultivated in the north of Europe : at one period private families 
raised enough for their own consumption, when the process of maceration proving highly 
detrimental to the streams and common ponds, was subjected to certain penal regulations. 
Temp. Hen. VIII. Latterly its cultivation has been encouraged by a Parliamentary pre¬ 
mium of fourpence for every fourteen pounds. It has been proposed to curtail the pro¬ 
cess of maceration, by using boiling water. E.) The seeds yield, by expression only, a 
large portion of oil, which is an excellent pectoral, as is likewise the mucilaginous infusion 
of the Lint-seed. They make an easy and useful emollient cataplasm in cases of external 
inflammation, and to promote expectoration; and are the food of several small birds. 
After the oil is expressed, the remaining farinaceous part, callen Oil Cake, is given to oxen, 
who soon grow fat upon it; (to broken-winded horses, and also used for manure. Mixed with 
skimmed milk it is used for fattening house lambs and calves. Salisbury states that pow¬ 
dered, and sown in the drills with turnip seed, it insures a fine crop. E.) The oil 
itself differs in several respects from other expressed oils: it does not congeal in winter, uor 
does it form a solid soap with fixed alkaline salts: and it acts more powerfully as a men- 
