Ashes of the Flax Plant. Ill 



It is remarkable also, that in both Irish flaxes the potash 

 and soda are present in equal quantities, though not in the 

 same quantity in each ash. This, however, may be only a 

 coincidence, though still a remarkable one. 



A more interesting peculiarity is the presence, in the Armagh 

 flax, of the very large quantity of peroxide of iron, 13'5 per 

 cent. In the Dublin flax I have not formerly counted iron 

 as an ingredient, although I did find in the analyses a small 

 quantity, because I had burned the plants on a sheet of iron 

 wire-gauze, and I feared that a minute quantity of iron might 

 be derived from that ; and also that, in that analysis, my only 

 object was to show the presence of large quantities of valuable 

 ingredients, which the farmer ought to oeconomise. I there- 

 fore did not separately determine that minute trace of iron, 

 which, however, could in no way aflect the numerical results. 

 The occurrence of the large quantity of iron in the Armagh 

 flax is, therefore, the more curious ; and it will be interesting 

 to examine, by other analyses of the flax sown in the sand- 

 stone districts of the north of Ireland, whether the same pro- 

 portion of oxide of iron will be found. 



Notwithstanding the great difference in the quantity of silica 

 in the Irish flaxes from the Belgian, the proportion of oxygen 

 per cent, in the bases comes out nearly the same. Thus the 

 bases contain of oxygen, — 



Flax from Dublin .... 13-41 

 Flax from Armagh . . . . 13*66 

 closely coinciding with the number already found for the 

 Belgian and Dutch flax. 



It is not unimportant to correct a statement recently made, 

 that prepared fibre of flax is not so destitute of mineral con- 

 stituents as I have assumed in the preceding investigations. 

 In order to arrive fully at the truth, I have instituted some 

 additional experiments, with the following results : — 



A. Very imperfectly dressed flax from the county Clare 

 gave, by incineration, with proper precautions, 0*97 per cent, 

 of ashes, containing principally oxide of iron and lime. 



B. A specimen of perfectly dressed flax from Belfast gave, 

 on incineration, 0*62 per cent, of ashes. 



C. A specimen of fine dressed linen gave, on incineration, 

 0*24 per cent, of ashes, principally lime, with some oxide of 

 iron. Hence it is evident that my former results on this point 

 were precisely confirmed by these new trials, 



4. Results of the Examiyiation of the Waters selected for steep- 

 ing Flax in Belgium. 

 No. 1. This water is from a large pond near the bank of 



