fl,g.J FLAX AN ORNAMENTAL PLANT, 



VI. 



On the Cultivation of (he common F/a.r, LinumUsitatissimum 

 qfLimie, as an ornamental Plant in the Flower Garden. By 

 Mr. John Dunbar, Gardener to Thomas Fairfax, Esq.* 



Flax cultivated J[ JJE Horticultural Society will perhaps honour with 

 as an ornamen- . . . . . . . * _ , . . . , . . 



tal flower their attention a short paper, the object or which is to bring 



into cultivation the common Jlax, as an ornament of the 

 flower garden, not merely as such, but with a view to the 

 profit it will afford, at least to the servant, if not to the 

 master; and the interest of the former can seldom be pro- 

 moted in an honest way, without some benefit accruing to 

 •would add to the latter. This plant, when so cultivated, like wax and 

 the nation. ° none y> forms part of the natural riches of a country, and 

 if it could supplant the cumbersome yellow lupine in our 

 flower borders, the annual revenue arising from it would 

 amount to several thousand pounds. 

 Five persons If gardening were in its infant state among us, a com- 

 luien fromone P^ ete treatise on the culture of this plant might foe neces- 

 gardeninthis sary; but as this .is not the case, only what is especially 

 ay * material wjill be noticed, with some directions how to prepare 



the plant after it is gathered. They are the result of se- 

 veral; years experience, by which a family consisting of 

 •five persons has been supplied with all the linen they re- 

 quired. 

 A loamy soil The soil of every flower garden is always rich enough to 

 I"**' produce good Jlax ; but if it is loamy rather than sandy, 



the quantity will be nearly double : even in the fields, 

 which can never be cultivated with the nicety of a gentle- 

 man's garden, I have observed the greatest crops in a 

 loamy soil, and that they yielded an article superior in qua- 

 lity as well as quantity : for as the durability of the fibre 

 depends in some measure upon its size, there can be no 

 doubt that tall and vigorous plants are preferable to small 

 ones. 

 Modeofdis- There are various ways of disposing this plant so as to 

 ♦rnament. U ^e exceedingly ornamental, but none more so than scatter- 



* Trans, of the Horticultural Soc. p. 71. 



