LOBELIA 183 



LINUM 



Official, in all editions, from 1820 to 1910. 



Flaxseed, or linseed, Linum usitatissimum, has been 

 cultivated from all times in the Old World. From nat- 

 ural scattering of its seeds it may become a weed, and is 

 thus found wild in more or less favored locations 

 throughout the temperate and tropical regions of the 

 globe. Flax as a fibrous plant has been utilized through- 

 out the journey of human civilization. The Egyptian 

 tombs carry paintings illustrating the weaving of flax 

 into cloth; the grave clothes of the early Egyptians 

 were made of flax, whose record has been traced back 

 to at least 2300 B. C. The seeds of the plant have 

 ever been employed, both as a food and as a medicine. 

 All the early historians, such as the Greek Alcman of the 

 7th century B. C., Thucydides and Pliny (514), refer to 

 its qualities as a food, reciting that the seeds were used 

 by the people, both externally and internally, as medi- 

 cines. Charlemagne promoted the growth of flax in 

 Northern Europe. The plant reached Sweden and Nor- 

 way from its native land, before the 12th century. 



LOBELIA (Lobelia, Indian Tobacco) 

 Official, all editions, from 1820 to 1910. 



Lobelia, or Indian tobacco, Lobelia inflate, was 

 introduced by Samuel Thomson (638) in the beginning 

 of the 19th century. It has been, in domestic medica- 

 tion, in the practice of the Thomsonians and also of the 

 Eclectics, one of the most valued remedial agents of the 

 American flora (388b). Following its empirical use, 

 the first printed record concerning its emetic properties 

 is by the Rev. Manasseh Cutler, LL.D., (178), who in 

 the American Academy of Science, 1785, under the title 



