Volume 7 — PLATE CCCCXLIX.

LINUM TRIGYNUM.

Three-styled Golden Flax.

CLASS V. ORDER V.

PENTANDRIA PENTAGYNIA. Five Chives. Five Pointals.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Calyx. Perianthium pentaphyllum, lanceolatum, erectum, persistens.

Corolla. Petala infundibuliformia quinque, oblonga, superne sensim latiora, obtusa, patentia.

Stamina. Filamenta quinque subulata, erecta, longitudine calycis (rudimenta filorum insuper 5, alternantia). Antheræ simplices, sagittatæ.

Pistillum. Germen ovatum. Styli 5, filiformes, erecti, longitudine staminum. Stigmata simplicia, reflexa.

Pericarpium. Capsula globosa, pentagona, decemlocularis, quinquevalvis.

Semina solitaria, ovato-planiuscula, acuminata, glabra.

Empalement. Cup five-leaved, lance-shaped, upright, and remaining.

Blossom. Funnel-shaped petals five, oblong, widening upwards by degrees, obtuse, and spreading.

Chives. Five filaments, awl-shaped, upright, the length of the calyx (there are five alternate slight rudiments of threads). Anthers simple, and arrow-shaped.

Pointal. Seed-bud ovate. Shafts 5, thread-shaped, and upright, the length of the stamens. Summits simple, and reflexed.

Seed-vessel. Capsule globular, five-sided, ten-celled, five-valved.

Seeds solitary, of a flattish oval form, sharp-pointed, and smooth.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Linum trigynum, foliis alternis, ovatis, glabris, apice acuminatis: floribus in ramis simpliciter terminalibus: corolla aurea, magna: ramulis alternis, numerosis, viridibus.

Flax with three pointals; leaves alternate, ovate, and smooth, pointed at the end: flowers terminate the branches singly: blossoms gold colour, and large: the smaller branches alternate, numerous, and green.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

This perfectly new Linum is by far the most showy of the genus, and illumines all the gloomy months of winter with its fine large flowers, whose brilliance is not often surpassed even in the height of summer, when Flora reigns with undiminished lustre. It has been hitherto regarded as a hot-house plant, but is now found to succeed much better with the careful treatment of the green-house. It is published by Capt. Hardwicke in his enumeration of the plants of Sireenagur in the Asiatic Annual Register of 1800, and was found by that gentleman on the sides of the mountains in fine bloom in the month of December, and from whom it received the specific title of trigynum. Its provincial name is said to be Gul Ashorfee; from Gul a flower and Ashorfee gold, a coin current in India of the value of 2l. sterling. There is a figure of this Linum in the Exotic Botany of Dr. Smith, copied from a drawing, and represented with deeply serrated leaves; a character very different from any of the living plants we have as yet seen in bloom, not one of them exhibiting the slightest vestige of a serrature on their foliage. Our figure was made from a plant in luxuriant bloom at the nursery of Messrs. Whitley and Brames.