Linaceæ Flax Family
Reading edition
Herbs with perfect regular nearly symmetrical flowers; sepals 5, persistent; petals 5 and alternate with the sepals; stamens 5 opposite the sepals.
Linum Lewisii Pursh. Lewis’s Wild Flax.
Perennial from a woody root, 1—2 feet high, densely tufted, smooth, glaucous. Leaves crowded, oblong or linear, ¼—1½ inches long, acute or acutish, 3—5 nerved. Flowers bright blue, 1—1½ inches broad; petals 5, soon falling; sepals 5, oval, mainly obtuse, ⅓ or ¼ the length of the petals; stigmas shorter than the styles; stamens 5, longer than the styles.
In open, dry, stony ground and slopes throughout the Rockies; flowering in June and July.
Empetrum nigrum L. (Nat.) Black Crowberry.
Linum Lewisii Pursh. (¼ Nat.) Wild Blue-Flax.