33 Linum Lewisii.
river it is an annual, and on the Missouri a perennial. The bark
of this species possesses the same kind of tough fibres as common
flax; and, as under cultivation it appears to be perennial,
it would seem to be worth attention. The Missouri Indians, Mr.
Nuttall informs me, are in the habit of making lint and wadding for
their guns from its bark. Hence, as a native vegetable, it promises
to be useful by its abundance in the rich and luxuriant soils of the
western countries, in which it is indigenous. That botanist has supposed
the plant to be identical with L. perenne, of Europe. Yet it
differs from that species in its abundant, crowded foliage, still more
in being entirely glaucous. From common flax it differs in the
same characters, yet such is its strong resemblance to that species,,
that it has been mistaken for it by some, in its native situations.* The
specimen here figured was raised from seeds brought by Mr. Nuttall,
and was a good sample of the wild plant.
Fig. 1. A flowering specimen, the natural size. 3. A petal. 3. A capsule.
* On comparing the present plant with fine specimens of Linum perenne, in the extensive
herbarium of the Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil, just received from France, I observe
that in that species the calix leaves are only acute—in L. Lewisii, they are acuminated,
particularly on the mature capsule; the branch leaves are much broader than
those of L. Lewisii, and broader than the cauline leaves of the same plant, and more
acuminate, rather mucronate. In habit, however, there appears the most conspicuous
difference. L. perenne is a larger plant, not glaucous, and less leafy than the
Lewisii; the seeds are of a paler colour. In reality, L. usitatissimum, L. perenne and
L. Lewisii, are much alike, and in this genus the specific characters are not very
strongly marked. The general physiognomy seems more discriminative than any definite
character in calix or leaves.