FLAX. 321 



Description. — The root is annual, small, ami fibrous, pro- 

 tlucing a straiirht, slender, smooth, cylindrical, leafy stem, 

 branched towards the summit, and rising about a foot and a half 

 in height. The leaves are alternate, distant, lanceolate, generally 

 acute, entire, glaucous, three-nerved, and pointing upwards. 

 The flowers are numerous, erect, on long unifloral, axillary, 

 and terminal peduncles, forming a kind of corymb. The five 

 sepals are persistent, ovate, mucronate, three-nerved, whitish 

 and scariose at the margin. The petals are five, crenate at 

 the point, obovate, shining; purplish blue, marked with deeper 

 veins, and furnished with whitish claws. The filaments are 

 five, subulate, erect, about the length of the calyx, united at 

 the base in a hypopynous ring, from which proceed little teeth, 

 opposite the petals, and indicating abortive stamens ; anthers 

 sagittate, two-celled, innate. The germen is ovate, surmounted 

 by five capillary erect styles, as long as the filaments, and ter- 

 minated by as many obtuse stigmas. The capsule is globose, 

 obscurely five-sided, mucronate, ten-celled and ten-valved, 

 dehiscing at the apex. The seeds are solitary in the cells, com- 

 pressed, elliptical, acute, smooth, and shining. Plate 1.9, fig. 1, 

 A. (a) the stamens ; (b) germen and styles ; (c) the capsule cut 

 transversely. 



This plant is not unfrequent in corn fields and sandy pastures. 

 It is common in Europe, as also in Nipaul and North America, 

 and is said to have been introduced originally from Egypt. It 

 flowers in July, and ripens its seed in September. 



The generic name is derived from the Celtic Lin, thread; 

 whence the Greek Xivov, the Latin linum, and other synonymes. 

 The above species is called provincially Lint and Lyne. 



There are about eighty species of Flax described, many of 

 which are very ornamental and of easy cultivation. Four 

 are natives of Britain. 



Qualities and general Uses. — From the remotest anti- 

 quity this plant has been celebrated for its multifarious uses in 

 the arts and domestic economy ; but though indigenous to 

 Egypt *, it does not appear to have been used by the natives of 

 that country in the manufacture of cloth ; the vestments of the 

 mummies being uniformly of cotton. In later times, in our 

 own country, when every little household prepared their own 

 * See Exodus, chap. ix. v. 31. 



