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Vol. VIII. DETROIT, MAY, 1888. No. 5 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



N 



THE OIL-BEARING SEEDS. 



C. M. VOKCE, F. K. M. S. 

 II. 



flax seed. 



[plate v.] 



EXT in importance, commercially, to cotton seed comes flax 

 seed or linseed, the seed of Linum iisitatissimum, which was, 

 indeed, until a late period the most important of the oil-bearing 

 seeds. The flax plant antedates all history in antiquity of cultiva- 

 tion, and the earliest mention of it in the Bible, the writings of 

 Pliny, etc., places it of equal importance with the cereal crops, its 

 fibre being the object of its cultivation. " Fine linen" was a luxury 

 long before the days of Christ, so much so. that in the Old Testament 

 the raiment of the angels was referred to as composed of it, and it 

 was a sacrilege for the high priests to wear garments in which wool 

 was mixed with the linen. To this day fine linen has not ceased to 

 be a luxury and a delicacy, but the fibre of the plant, having been 

 largely supplanted by cotton, and owing to the increased use of lin- 

 seed oil in arts and manufactures, is no longer the chief object of its 

 cultivation. The flax plant has a wide range, flourishing everywhere 

 between 60'^ of latitude, and it is a singular fact that the seed most 

 esteemed for the manufacture of the oil is that imported fi'om the 

 Baltic ports of Russia and that from India. In America the seed 



