PENTANDRIA. PENTAGYNIA. Sibbaldia. 409 
height, always nearly upright. Leaves sometimes five-ribbed. Panicle 
of few flowers. Sm. E.) Petals wedge-shaped, deciduous, slighty united 
by the claws. Stamens white, scarcely broader at the base. Anthers 
blue, inclined to the styles, somewhat united. Styles the length of the 
filaments, bluish, slightly cohering. Capsule globular but tapering to a 
sharp point. Giddy. 
Narrow-leaved Pale Flax. (Welsh: Llin culddail. L. an gust folium. 
Huds. FI. Brit. With. Ed. 2. L . tenuifolium. With. Ed. 4. A very 
different plant from L. tenuifolium of Linn. Sm. E.) Dry meadows and 
pastures. Very plentiful in Cornwall. Mr. Watt. Minster, in the Isle of 
Sheppey ; and Deal. Hudson. (Near Allerton Hall, Liverpool. Mr. Shep¬ 
herd. Darsham, Suffolk. Mr. Davy. On the cliff edge, a little west of 
Pegwell, near Ramsgate. Mr. G. E. Smith. On the beach between the 
mount and Friars bach, and below Trefarthen, Anglesey, where grow 
also other species. Welsh Bot. On rocks by the sea side a short distance 
east of Teignmouth. E.) P. June—July. 
(2) Leaves opposite. 
L. cathar'ticum Leaves opposite, egg-spear-shaped: panicle dicho¬ 
tomous : petals acute. 
Dicks. H. S. —( E . Bot. 382. E.)— Kiiiph. 8— Ludw. 143— Curt. 151— Wale. 
— Blackw. 368— J. B. iii. 455. 2— Pet. 55. 12— Ger. Em. 560. 5— Park. 
1336. 10 —Barr. 1165. 1. 
( Stems one or more, very slender, two to six inches long. Flowers pendu¬ 
lous before opening, white, small, tremulous. E.) Calyx edge fringed 
with minute glands on foot-stalks. St. Filaments united, inclosing the 
lower half of the ger men. 
Purging Flax. Mill-mountain. (Irish: Kealagh. Welsh: Llin y 
tylwyth leg. Gaelic: An caol-miosachan. E.) Dry meadows and pas¬ 
tures. A. May—July.* 
SIBBALD'lA.f Cal , ten-cleft: Petals five, attached to the 
calyx : Styles from the sides of the germen: Seeds five, 
naked. 
S. procum'bens. Leafits with three terminal teeth, wedge-shaped. 
Dicks. H. S.— {E. Bot. 897. E.)—El. Van. 32— Sibhald. — Penn. Toy. ii. 5, 
at p. 43— Pet. 41. 7. 
Boot woody. Stems trailing, covered with the remains of the dead leaf¬ 
stalks. Leaf-stalks slender, below oblong, membranous, embracing the 
stems. Pistils sometimes ten or five in the same plant. Leaves entire 
at the edges, lopped and tridentate at the end, (the middle tooth smallest. 
* An infusion of two drams or more of the dried plant is an excellent cathartic, and has 
been given with advantage in many obstinate rheumatisms. It frequently acts as a diuretic. 
Horses, sheep, and goats eat it. (The leaves are often infested with Ureilo Lini , of a bright 
yellow colour, roundish, pulverulent. Grev. Scot. Crypt. 31. E.) 
•J* (Named by Linnaeus in memory of Sir Robert Sibbald, who in 1684 published a 
learned work entitled “ Scotia Illustrata,” the labour of twenty yea s, in which this plant 
was first figured and described. He was the first Medical Professor instituted at Edin¬ 
burgh, about the year 1685; greatly advanced the indigenous botany of Scotland; and 
became Physician and Geographer Royal to King Charles II. E.) 
