On page 436 of Gemma Hardy, Gemma relates to Hallie how she remembered the red-brown kitchen linoleum in her childhood home. I also grew up with linoleum floors and discovered that the product was invented in England and had a very strong Scottish connection.

Linoleum is a floor covering made from materials such as solidified linseed oil,  pine rosin, ground cork dust, wood flour, and mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate, most commonly on a burlap or canvas backing. Pigments are often added to the materials to create the desired color finish. It was invented by Englishman Frederick Walton. In 1855, Walton happened to notice the rubbery, flexible skin of solidified linseed oil (linoxyn) that had formed on a can of oil-based paint and thought that it might form a substitute for India rubber..

At first Walton called his invention "Kampticon", which was deliberately close to Kamptulicon, the name of an existing floor covering, but he soon changed it to Linoleum, which he derived from the Latin words "linum" (flax) and "oleum" (oil). In 1864 he established the Linoleum Manufacturing Company Ltd., with a factory at Staines, near London.  By 1869 Walton's factory in Staines, England was exporting to Europe and the United States. In 1877, the Scottish town of Kirkcaldy, in Fife, became the largest producer of linoleum in the world. Walton opened the American Linoleum Manufacturing Company in 1872 on Staten Island, NY.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linoleum