COTTON. FLAX. 129 



India, and is also cultivated in Sicily. The arborescent cotton 

 tree was originally from India: it is now cultivated in Brazil and 

 Peru, and constitutes one of the most important products of the 

 United States : it grows to the height of from fifteen to twenty 

 feet. The leaves of these plants are alternate, petiolate, and 

 divided into five digitate lobes; the flowers, borne upon peduncles 

 in the axils of the upper leaves, are yellowish or purplish. The 

 fruit is an egg-shaped capsule, divided into from two to five cells, 

 each of which contains several seeds ; the cotton is found sur- 

 rounding these seeds. 



The Gossy'pium herba'cfum herbaceous cotton "grows from four to six 

 feet high, and produces two crops annually ; the first in eight months after 

 sowing the seed ; the second within four months after the first ; and the 

 produce of each plant is reckoned at about one pound weight. The branches 

 are pruned or trimmed after the first gathering ; and if the growth is over 

 luxuriant, this should be done sooner. When a great part of the pods are 

 expanded, the wool is picked, and afterwards cleared from the seeds by a 

 machine (invented by Whitney, an American) called a cotton-gin, com- 

 posed of two or three wooden rollers of about one inch diameter, ranged 

 horizontally, close and parallel to each other ; and the central roller being 

 moved by a treadle or foot-lath, resembling that of a knife-grinder, makes 

 the other two revolve in contrary directions. The cotton is laid in small 

 quantities at a time upon these rollers, whilst they are in motion, and readily 

 passing between them, drops into a bag placed underneath to receive it, 

 leaving the seeds, which are too large to pass with it, behind. The cotton 

 thus separated from the seeds, is afterwards hand-picked and cleansed 

 thoroughly from any little particles of the pods or other substances which 

 may be adhering to it. It is then stowed in large bags, where it i.s well 

 trodden down, that it maybe close and compact ; and the better to answer this 

 purpose, some water is every now and then sprinkled upon the outside of 

 the bag ; the marketable weight of which is usually three hundred pounds." 

 London, 



89. The Flax Linum usitati' ssimum which is employed in 

 a like manner, belongs to another family of the same class, called 

 the family of GERANIA'CE.E, the type of which is the Geraniums 

 of our gardens and green-houses. This well-known thread or 

 clothing plant has been cultivated from the remotest antiquity for 

 its cortical fibres, which, when separated from the woody matter, 

 form the lint and tow, which is spun into yarn, and woven into 

 linen cloth. Flax-seed yields a valuable oil, by expression, called 

 linseed oil, used in painting; in powder it is much used for poul- 

 tices ; and the refuse, after pressing for oil, forms a cake fit to 

 "atten cattle, and for manure. The stem of the flax is simple 

 and cylindrical, from two to three feet high, and branching only 

 towards the top; the leaves are sparse and lanceolate, and the 

 terminal flowers are of a delicate blue; the calyx has five sepals 



89. To what family does the flax plant belong ? What is linen ? What 

 is linseed oil ? 



