20 . NOTICES OF BOOKS AND MEMOIRS. 



British Islands. This pereimial species may be distinguished at 

 the first ghince from the annual Linum iisitatissimum , by its 

 dividing into numerous branches immediately above the root. Its 

 fruits and seeds are only half the size of the last-named species. 

 As it is known that Heer is inclined, for several reasons, to 

 assume an African origin for the cultivation of this plant found in 

 the Lake-dwellings, it would be at any rate of the highest 

 interest to make sure whether the flax cultivated in ancient 

 Egypt agrees with that of the Lake-dwellings. At the request of 

 Professor Heer, the vegetable remains preserved in this Egyptian 

 Museum were therefore examined with this object. The result 

 was certainly not very satisfactory, since there were found only 

 three seeds of Linum, and these among seeds the authenticity of 

 which may be doubted on very serious grounds. 



These three seeds belong to two different s^Jecies ; one certainly 

 belongs to Linum cm(/iistifolinm ,'•' the two others to Linum humile, 

 Mill. (L. usitatissi)num var. crepitans, Schiibl. & Martens, the 

 so-called " Klenglein," the fruits of which burst open on 

 becoming ripe, while they remain closed in L. usitatissimum, Mill., 

 " Schliess " or " Dreschlein," very commonly cultivated in Central 

 Europe). As, however, these seeds were mixed in so small a 

 quantity with the seeds of other cultivated plants, the former with 

 those of Lcictuai sativa, and the latter with those of Xu/ella sativa, 

 the supposition is probable that they belonged to weeds acciden- 

 tally present among these cultivated plants. The occurrence of 

 Linum humile has therefore a special interest, as this is the only 

 siDecies cultivated in Abyssmia. As to its uses there, W. Schimper 

 gives the following information : f — 



" The cultivation of this plant is neither for producing oil 

 nor the manufacture of flax. Its only use is as a miserable 

 famine-food, prepared from the (seeds) grains which, first roasted 

 and pounded, are then mixed with cold water and form a soup, 

 which is eaten with the addition of salt and pepper. This is also 

 the almost daily nourishment of the poor classes." 



It is, of course, not impossible that the flax cultivated in ancient 

 Egypt was Limun humile. \ linger certainly states that he found 



• Linum angustifolium is now unknown in Egypt, but probably exists in 

 Cyrenaica, wliich bounds it on the west (Rohlfs, compare Cosson ' Bull. Soc. Bot. 

 France,' lH75, p. 4f!), and in Palestine, which bounds it on the east (Boissier 

 • Fl. Or.', vol. i. p. H(J1). 



+ SchwL-infurth, ' Beitrag zur Flora Aethiopiens,' Berlin, 1867, p. 28. 



t The circumstance that I have as yet seen only Linum humile from Egypt 

 is in favour of this conjecture ; in the Berlin Botanical Museum there are 

 specimens raised from seeds brou<iht by Geheimrath Lepsius. I found this 

 species cultivat<d in Fajuin : Ehrenberg at Fuah in the Delta, and at Cairo, laid 

 up among other cultivated plants ; Boissier has also found this species in 

 Eg}-pt under similar circumstances {' Fl. Orient.' i. 1861). It remains to be 

 settled wliether Linum usitatissimum, Mill., was cultivated in Egypt before 

 modern times; the "Lin ile Riga" and "Lin do Pskotf," which are given in 

 I)e (.'hevaleri.''s 'Catalogue rais. des produits de I'hortic. et de I'agric. expos, la par 

 direction des doinaines du Khedive d'Egypte (Expos, intern, a Cologne en 1875),' 

 may probably belong to this species. 



