FLAX. 



17 



Within the last four or five years attempts have been made to mix this 

 material with cotton fibres and to spin them into a uniform composite 

 yarn. A Lancashire firm of spinners who tried this as an experiment 

 did not follow it up to a successful issue. The blending of the bastose 

 and plumose fibres to make one complete yarn is not feasible to begin 

 with. Cotton fibres are unicellular, and flax fibres are multicellular, while 

 the structure of the two is antagonistic to their union in a combined 

 thread. 



Courtrai Flax, imported from Belgium, is remarkable for its colour, 



Fig. 7. Mountain flax, Linum catharticum. 



tenacity and fineness. When the stems have been partly retted they are 

 put into crates and immersed in the sluggish stream of the Lys ; it is 

 of good staple before spinning. "Flax" and "codilla" are names given 

 to the waste or broken fibres of flax during the preparatory processes of 

 spinning. The chief processes by which flax is converted into linen are 

 spinning and weaving. s^ttt^ 



Fig. 7 is an outline illustration of Linum catharticum or mountain 

 flax, the fibres of which have been used for textile purposes. It is much 



2 



