THE CEIMSON FLAX. 



Linuin yrandifloruiH. 



,HEN Pharaoh trembled to behold 

 the plague of hail, " and fire 

 mingled with the hail, very 

 grievous/' he repented, and be- 

 sought Moses to "intreat the 

 Lord ;" and Moses spread abroad 

 his hands, " and the thunders and 

 hail ceased/' Then it was found 

 " that the flax and the barley was 

 smitten : for the barley was in 

 the ear, and the flax was boiled/' 

 This passage establishes the cul- 

 tivation of flax in Egypt 1,500 

 years before the Christian era, 

 and over 500 years before the 

 time of Homer, who speaks of 

 it as representing an important 

 domestic industry. Herodotus 

 describes the Egyptian priests 

 as wearing linen garments, as in after-times was the 

 custom of the priests of Israel, as ordained in Exodus 

 xxviii. The common annual flax bearing blue flowers 

 was, in all probability, the plant grown for fibre from 

 the earliest times in all parts of the Old World. 

 P 



