CHAPTER XIX. 

 FLAX, BUCKWHEAT, SUNFLOWERS AND PUMPKINS 



FLAX {Linum usitaiissimum) . 



History. — De Candolle says L. angustlfolium, usually a 

 perennial species, was the first cultivated. It was eventually 

 supplanted by the annual L. usitatissimutn , which has been 

 cultivated in Mesopotamia, Assyria and Egypt for 4,000 to 

 5,000 years. This region he thinks was its original habitat. 

 Some of the bandages on the mummies in the British Museum 

 are of linen. 



Description. — The crop is grown for the two products, 

 fibre and linseed, and because the best fibre is not produced by 

 the heaviest seeding plants two distinct types have evolved. 

 The fibre type is small-seeded, uniformly straight, has a com- 

 paritively unbranched stem 2 feet to 3 feet 6 inches, and a 

 small raceme at the top, which eventually bears capsules 

 having five compartments, containing ten shiny, flat, dark 

 brown seeds. 



The linseed type is shorter, 1 foot 6 inches to 2 feet, 

 more branched, has larger and heavier seeds, with numerous 

 capsules. By close planting the tendency to branching is in- 

 hibited, and plants can thus be produced resembling the fibre 

 type. 



The common varieties have blue or white flowers ; red- 

 flowered varieties are occasionally found. 



The fibres, which constitute from 20 to 27 per cent, of 

 the stem, occur in small bundles between the cambium and 

 cortex. Each cell is about one inch in length, and the fibre 

 filament one foot to three feet in length. 



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