1(5 



LI N 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



LIN 



a good soil. There is a dwarf variety, which has stronger and 

 shorter stalks, branching out more, the leaves broader, the 

 flowers larger, with the petals iudeuled at the extremity, the 

 seed-vessels much larger, and the peduncles longer. This 

 valuable plant is supposed to have been derived originally 

 from those parts of Egypt which are exposed to the inunda- 

 tions. In the earliest record we have, E.wdim ix. 31. flax is 

 mentioned as a plant cultivated in that country ; on which 

 account antiquaries have been surprised to find the vestments 

 of mummies made of cotton. It is highly probable, however, 

 that mankind made thread of cotton before the use of flax 

 was discovered; the former being produced in a state ready 

 for spinning, whereas the latter requires a long process before 

 it can be brought to that state. It is difficult, or perhaps 

 impossible, to determine when the culture of flax was first 

 introduced into this country- In the simplicity of ancient 

 times, \vheu families provided within themselves most of the 

 necessaries and conveniences of life, every garden supplied 

 a proper quantity of hemp and flax. The macerating or 

 steeping necessary to separate the fibres, by. rotting the rest 

 of the stalk, was found to render water so offensive, that "by 

 the 33rd of Henry VIII. it was enacted that no person should 

 water any Hemp or Flax, in any river or stream, or in any 

 common pond, where beasts are used to be watered. The 

 seeds of flax, called Linseed, yield, by expression only, a large 

 proportion of oil, which is an excellent pectoral, as is like- 

 wise the mucilaginous infusion. The oil is of a healing bal- 

 samic nature, and very useful in coughs, attended with spit- 

 ting of blood, in colics, and obstinate costiveness. Out- 

 wardly applied, it softens and eases pain. The seeds in sub- 

 stance are used as poultices, to soften and ripen inflammatory 

 tumors, and are well adapted for that purpose. The infusion 

 is likewise a good medicine in the strangury, heat of urine, 

 thin sharp deductions on the lungs, and other similar disorders. 

 An ounce of the seeds is a sufficient, quantity for a quart of 

 water; for if added in a larger quantity, they render the liquor 

 disagreeably slimy. After the oil is expressed from the seeds, 

 the remaining farinaceous part, called oil-cake, is given to 

 oxen, who soon grow fat upon it. This oil differs in several 

 respects from other expressed oils : it does not congeal in 

 winter, nor does it form a solid soap with fixed alkaline salts, 

 and it acts more powerfully as a menstruum upon sulphure- 

 ous bodies. When heat is applied during the expression, it 

 acquires a yellowish colour, and a peculiar smell. In this 

 state it is used by painters and varnishers. , It is well known 

 that the fibres of the stem are manufactured into linen, and 

 that this linen, when worn to rags, is made into paper. Flax 

 in German is called Flacks, or Lein ; in Dutch, Vlasch ; in 

 Danish, Horr or Hiirr ; in Norwegian, Liin ; in Swedish 

 and French, Lin; in Italian and Spanish, Lino; in Portu- 

 guese, Linho ; in Russian, Polish, and all the languages from 

 the Slavonian, Len, or Lan. All the Europeans, except the 

 Danes, use Lin, when speaking of the seed. Flax requires a 

 rich dry soil, or fat sandy loam, particularly that which is 

 formed from the sediment of great rivers ; hence old grass- 

 land of this description is its most proper matrix. It is, how- 

 ever, not (infrequently sown on arable land ; and, when the 

 soil is in heart, dry, friable, and clean, with good success. 

 Much depends on the state of the soil at the lime of sowing. 

 It should neither be wet uor dry, and the surface ought to 

 be made as fine as- that of a garden bed. For the crop 

 should all rise tORr'her, and the surface should be evenly 

 seeded. If the p, .n'> come up at several times, or if by 

 accident or mismanagement they be thin upon the ground*, 

 the crop is irreparaK'y injured. This will be the case in a 

 severe season of drought, or when spring frosts are severe, 



or when the crop is attacked by a small white slug; or when 

 the ground being full of clods, the seeds are not evenly dis- 

 persed, and not being able to pierce Ihe clods, come up in 

 circles round them, leaving vacancies in the centre favouring 

 their early branching, than which nothing is more detrimen- 

 tal to the crop, the goodness of it depending much on its 

 running up with a single stalk, for wherever it branches, the 

 fibres terminate, and they are worked off in dressing. If the 

 crop be intended for thread of the first quality, the time of 

 pulling it is when the seeds are formed ; but if they be suf- 

 fered to ripen, the advantage gained by the seed is balanced 

 by the inferior quality of the flax, the filauienta being harsh, 

 and the cloth made from them not taking a good colour in 

 whitening. It is also a great exhauster of the soil, when it 

 stands for the seed to ripen. The flax crop interferes with 

 harvest, and therefore ought to be confined to rich grass- 

 land districts, where harvest is a secondary object, and where 

 exhaustion may be rather favourable than hurtful to succeed- 

 ing arable crops, by checking the too great rankness of the 

 rich fresh-broken ground. It has been strongly recommended, 

 instead of steeping the flax in ponds or other cold water, to 

 separate the boon or pulp of the stalk, from the harle or 

 fibrous part, which constitutes the flax, by boiling it in water. 

 If this process should be found to answer as well as the com- 

 mon one, much time and labour would be saved, and the 

 air and waters would not be poisoneti, as they now are where 

 flax and hemp are steeped. The flax would also in all pro- 

 bability be of a finer colour, and the operation of bleaching 

 safer and less tedious; but whether the strength of the thread 

 would be improved or diminished, experience only can decide. 

 The common mode of cultivating flax is as follows. In 

 order to have the ground as clear from weeds as possible, 

 it should be fallowed two winters, and one summer, and har- 

 rowed between each ploughing, particularly in summer, to 

 destroy the young weeds soon after they appear. This will 

 also break the clods by separating their parts, so that they 

 will full to pieces on being stirred. If the laud should require 

 dung, that ought not to be laid on till the last ploughing, 

 when it must be buried in the ground : but this dung should 

 be clear from seeds of weeds, which it may be by laying it 

 in a heap, and fermenting it well. Just before the season for 

 sowing the seed, the land is well ploughed, and laid very 

 even. The seeds are sown at the end of Match, or the 

 beginning of April, when the weather is mild and warm. 

 The seed is sown broad-cast, two to three bushels to an acre; 

 but from many repeated trials, says Mr. Miller, 1 have found 

 it a much better method to sow the seed in drills, at about 

 ten inches' distance from each other, by which half the quan- 

 tity of seed usually sown will produce a greater crop ; and 

 when the flax is thus sown, the seed may be easily hoed to 

 destroy the weeds : if this operation be twice repeated in 

 dry weather, it will keep the ground clean till the flax is 

 ripe ; this may be done at half the expense which hand-weed- 

 ing will cost, and will not tread down the plants nor harden 

 the ground, which by the other methods is always done ; and 

 it is absolutely necessary to keep the flax clean from weeds, 

 otherwise they will overbear and spoil the crop. Towards the 

 end of August, or the beginning of September, the flax will 

 begin to ripen, and it must not stand to be over-ripe, but be 

 pulled up by the roots as soon as the heads begin to change 

 brown, and hang downwards, otherwise the seeds will soon 

 scatter and be lost ; so that the pluckers must be nimble in 

 tying up the plants in bandfuls, and setting them upright, till 

 they are dry enough to be housed. If the flax be pulled when 

 it first begins to flower, the thread will be whiter, but then the 

 seed will be lost. The thread, however, will be stronger when 



