114 NAT. ORDER. LINAOEiE, 



Flax is an article of such extensive utility for various economical 

 purposes, that the plant which furnishes it has obtained the trivial 

 name of usitatissimum ; and when it is considered tliat its seeds 

 afford an oil equally useful in arts and in medicine, it may well be 

 deemed an object of national importance. Sensible of this, the society 

 for the encouragement of arts, manufactures and commerce, in Eng- 

 land, has laudably endeavored to promote and extend its cultivation 

 throughout the different parts of Europe, and not without success, as 

 it is now extensively cultivated there as well as in most parts of the 

 United States. The seed, which is directed for medical use, especially 

 the interior part or nucleus, is very rich in a peculiar oil, which is 

 separated by expression, and very extensively used in the various arts. 

 The ground seed can be found in the different shops, under the name 

 o^ flaxseed meal. This is of a dark grey color, highly oleaginous, 

 and when mixed with warm water forms a very soft, pliable, adhesive 

 mass, which is much employed by practical chemists for luting. The 

 cake which remains after the expression of the oil, usually called oil- 

 cake, still retains the mucilaginous matter of the envelope, and affo'-di' 

 a highly nutritious food for cattle. This is the Lini Farina of tne 

 Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia. 



Medical Properties and Uses. "Flax-seed is demulcent and 

 emollient. The mucilage obtained by infusing the entire seed in boil- 

 ing water, in the proportion of half an ounce to the pint, is much and 

 very advantageously employed in catarrh, dysentery, nephritic and 

 calculous complaints, strangury, and other inflammatory affections of 

 the mucous membranes of the lungs, intestines, and urinary organs. 

 By decoction water extracts also a portion of the oleaginous matter, 

 which renders the mucilage less fit for administration by the mouth, 

 but superior as a laxative enema." 



