94 FLAX. 



and $2,465,577 capital ; and the value of products is annually, $4, 

 078,306. Ken. has 111, Mass. 51, N. Y. 46, Penn. 39, etc. 



In 1840-1, the crops were very deficient in the U. S. ; but last 

 year the attention of government was directed to it, and in Ken. and 

 Mo. 700 tons of water-rotted hemp were produced. This, at the 

 price of the Russian hemp, was $200,000, and quite equal in quality 

 to that article. An important discovery is said to have been lately 

 made in the application of waste hemp, costing but 2 cts. per pound, 

 to the making of a strong snow white paper. Hemp has also lately 

 been made into beautiful and durable bonnets a process having been 

 discovered of making hemp as white as snow. Hemp produces, vrhen 

 planted in drills, from 20 to 40 bushels of seeds to the acre, but sown 

 broadcast, for lint, at three bushels to the acre, it produces from 700 

 to 1000 Ibs. of clean hemp to the acre. 



Hemp in Petersburg is one of the most important articles of com- 

 merce. It is of 3 kinds, clean or Ists, out-shot or 2ds, half clean or 

 3ds, and codilla. Of the 1st 2 million Ibs. are annually shipped in bun- 

 dles. England imports annually 374,932 cwt. of undressed hemp, 

 almost all of which is from Russia. 



C. Saliva ; stem upright, little hairy ; leaves opposite, stalked, 

 digitate ; leafets 5 or 7, lanceolate, acuminate, serrate ; male flowers 

 in loose spikes ; female flowers axillary, solitary, but male flowers on 



female plants, and vice versa E. I. 



FLAX, Linum usitatissimum. C.5, 0. 5. Caryop- 

 hyllae, sp. 29, Ds. A. 2-3 ft. This is one of the 

 most important plants in civilized society, though 

 the introduction of manufactured cotton within the 

 past century has rendered it far less important than it 

 was formerly for purposes of cloth. The plant has 

 been cultivated for various purposes from a remote pe- 

 riod in Asia, Africa and Europe. Its origin is not 

 known, but it is found wild in Persia, and is supposed 

 to have come into Europe from parts of Egypt exposed 

 to the inundations of the Nile. 



There are, beside the common flax above named, the 

 L. perenne, perennial flax ; L. hirsutum, hairy flax ; 

 L. reflexum, reflexed-leafed flax ; L. tennifolium,_/irie- 

 leafed flax ; L. angustifolium, narrow-leaf ed flax ; L. 

 Galicum, annual flax; L. Maritimurn, sea flax; L. 

 Alpinum, Alpine flax ; L. Austriacum, Austrian flax ; L. Flavum, 

 Perenial Yellow flax ; L. Strictum, Upright flax ; L. Catharticum, 

 Purging flax. 



Flax is chiefly cultivated for its use in the manufacture of linen 

 cloth and thread from the bark. This cloth was made and worn even 

 by barbarous nations at a very early period. The mummies of Egypt 



