Linum bienne Linum bienne Linum bienne, the pale flax, is a flowering plant in the genus "Linum", native to the Mediterranean region and western Europe, north to England and Ireland. Pale flax grows as a biennial or perennial plant in dry, sunny calcareous or neutral grasslands from sea level up to 1000 m. It has long, narrow stems to 60 cm tall and slender leaves 1.5-2.5 cm long. The flowers have five petals about 1 cm long and nearly round; they are pale blue but streaked with darker colour. It flowers in late spring and, at least in more temperate regions, through
The Colours of Animals come into play". To make the point, Wallace lists "the cones, cowries, olives, harps, volutes, pectens, and innumerable other molluscan shells; while many of the sea-anemones, and considerable numbers of the caterpillars with warning colours, are equally beautiful." And that was not all. Wallace continued: "Still more doubtful and more opposed to reasonable probability is the statement that 'our standards of beauty are largely derived from the contemplation of the numerous examples around us, which... have been created by the æsthetic preferences of the insect world'--alluding... to the colours and structures of flowers as being due to the need of