_Flax Family_
Herbs with perfect regular nearly symmetrical flowers; sepals 5,
persistent; petals 5 and alternate with the sepals; stamens 5 opposite
the sepals.
[Sidenote: =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.
[Illustration: Empetrum nigrum L. (Nat.) Black Crowberry.]
[Illustration: Linum Lewisii Pursh. (¼ Nat.) Wild Blue-Flax.]