THALAMIFLORiE 163 



Flax (Linum tisitatissimicm). 



One of the most ancient cultivated plants, Flax 

 was known to the people in the Stone Age, and 

 remains of it have been found in pile-dwellings in 

 Switzerland. Biblical history assures us of the use 

 of it in early days in Egypt. Yarn was one of the 

 imports from Egypt in Solomon's day. Linen was 

 imported to Greece from Egypt according to 

 Herodotus. Egyptian mummies are swathed in 

 linen similar to modern fabrics. That wonderful 

 race the Egyptians were proficient in textile indus- 

 tries like all else. A writer states that Herodotus 

 records that " in the temple of Minerva at Lindus 

 in Rhodes there was deposited a curiously wrought 

 linen corselet, which had belonged to Amasis, King 

 of Egypt, who lived about 600 years before Christ. 

 Each thread of the corselet was composed of 360 

 filaments, and it was ornamented with cotton and 

 gold. Some remains of this curiosity were still to 

 be seen in the time of Pliny, who relates that those 

 who beheld it wishing to assure themselves of the 

 truth of the fact had by degrees reduced it to a very 

 small relic. At the period in which Pliny wrote flax 

 was well known and extensively cultivated, not only 

 in Egypt, but in several parts of Europe. It was in 

 all probability known in Greece, and even cultivated 

 there, many ages before Pliny." 



In this country flax is an introduction. It is not 

 a very common plant, but occurs here and there as 



