View source for Linum

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Linum (classical name). Including Cathartolium. Linaceae. Flax. Ornamental flowering plants, annual and perennial; one is the fiber-yielding flax. 

Erect-growing plants, bearing tough cortex, with narrow alternate (rarely opposite) and mostly entire lvs., and showy 5-petaled fls. which open in the sunshine : stamens 5 and alternate with the petals, usually united at the base, staminodia sometimes present: ovary single, 3-5-loculed, bearing as many styles as locules, and ripening into a dry caps, which may or may not be dehiscent: fls. red, blue, yellow, white, borne in terminal racemes or cymes, and, although each fl. may be short-lived, the continuity of bloom makes the plant showy.—Species 90-100, in temperate and warm regions about the globe, about one-fourth of which are in the U. S.. There are two horticultural sections,—the annuals and perennials. All are of easy cult, in an open and warm place, fully exposed to the sun. Seeds of the annuals may be sown where the plants are to bloom or they may be started under glass. The perennials often bloom the first year from seed, and seeds are often used to prop. them; but the plants may be divided. The species with capitate stigma and glandular sepals, mostly yellow-fld., are by some authors separated as Cathartolinum.

L. campanulatum, Linn. Perennial yellow-fld. species from S. Eu., 1-1 ½ ft-. glaucous: lvs. on st. oblanceolate, acuminate, alternate.— L. Chamissonis, Schiede (L. Macraei, B.M. 5474, not Benth.). Perennial, woody at base, with scarlet buds and yellow fls. : lvs. stiff, lanceolate, acuminate: sepals ovate, acuminate: 1 ft. Chile. — L. pubeacens, Soland. Perennial, with large pink fls. shaded with dark purple lines, the petals 3 times as long as calyx: lvs. oblong and obtuse to lanceolate and acute. Asia Minor. — L. trigynum. Roxbg.~Reinwardtia trigyna.
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