4 FLAX. 



wild plants have been found growing there, apparently 

 quite in a state of nature. This region, however, has 

 always had the reputation of originally furnishing many, 

 both of the plants and animals, which have proved the 

 most serviceable for economical purposes. Elax is one 

 of those creatures of the Almighty hand which varies 

 but slightly, and only in unimportant particulars (as far 

 as specific distinctions are concerned), from a certain 

 type ; otherwise, it is probable that its real origin would 

 be quite as mysterious as that of wheat and the rest of 

 the cereal grains. In the earliest records of the human 

 race, we find it spoken of in the same sentences with 

 them, and in equal terms. Thus, in the ninth chapter 

 of Exodus, verses 31 and 32, we read, " And the flax and 

 the barley was smitten ; for the barley was in the ear, 

 and the flax was boiled. But the wheat and the rye were 

 not smitten; for they were not grown up." In the 

 same book, some of the uses are mentioned for which 

 flax was employed in those early days. In the ninth verse 

 of the thirty-eighth chapter, we are told, " On the south 

 side southward, the hangings of the court were of fine 

 twined linen, an hundred cubits." Egyptian mummies, 

 three thousand years old, are swathed in linen bandages ; 

 while before that time, " coats of fine linen of woven 

 work" were made "for Aaron, and for his sons." 



PEG GEE SS Or THE GEOWTH OF FLAX IN THE W r EST. 



Elax has thus travelled gradually from the East to the 

 western side of the old continent. The plant had long 

 been cultivated in Flanders, when, towards the end of 

 the thirteenth century, its growth was introduced into 

 the north-west of France, that is to say, into the ancient 

 provinces of Maine, Anjou, and Brittany. Beatrice de 

 G-aure, countess of Eauqembergue, in Elanders, and 

 wife of a lord, or seigneur, of Laval (now the chief town 

 of the department de la Mayenne), taught the inhabit- 

 ants of that neighbourhood to cultivate flax, which, it was 

 said, grew there spontaneously. Having obtained work- 



