S VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



annual plant which shoots forth in slender upright 

 fibrous stalks about the thickness of a crow-quill. 

 These stalks are hollow pipes surrounded by a 

 fibrous bark or rind, the filaments of which, divested 

 of all extraneous matter and carefully prepared, are 

 the material of cambric, linen, and other similar 

 manufactures. The leaves, placed alternately on the 

 stem, are long, narrow, and of a greyish colour. 

 When the plant has attained the height of about two 

 and a half or three feet, the stem then divides itself 

 into slender foot-stalks, which are terminated by 

 small blue indented flowers : these produce large 

 globular seed vessels divided within into ten cells, 

 each containing a bright slippery elongated seed. 



This plant will grow on almost any land, but it 

 impoverishes the soil, and therefore it is deemed 

 prudent to sow it on rich, rank ground, and never 

 two years consecutively on the same spot. In York- 

 shire old grass land is considered the most proper 

 matrix for flax*. 



A fine quality of flax is grown in the Crimea, and 

 in the Russian territories near the Black Sea, on the 

 rivers Dniester. Bog, Don, Dnieper, and in Kuban, 

 where the soil is very moist and rich. The Crimea 

 alone might be made to supply an empire ; but its 

 cultivation seems almost confined to the indus- 

 trious Bulgarian colonists who merely raise enough 

 for the use of their own families. This flax they 

 prepare themselves, and their wives and daughters 

 spin and weave it into clothing. Not to detail the 

 numerous districts where this most useful plant is 

 cultivated, we will merely add that in Egypt, whence, 

 no doubt, it was first introduced into Europe, it is 

 still grown, though now in infinitely less quantity 

 than cotton. " Egyptian flax," says M. Savary, 

 " formerly so renowned, has lost nothing of its ex- 

 * Marshal's Rural Economy of Yorkshire, 



