87 
ON FLAX AND ITS CULTURE IN OLDEN TIME. 
By Pnaorrsson HEER. 
In this paper Professor Heer traces out the ux of the cultivation 
of the Flax A from the earliest ages, SUTI e conclusion that 
m has been evolved by gra dual st «fes out of L. angus- 
tifolium. The ‘lowing notes contain a general summary of what he 
advances. 
1. Flax has been cultivated in ips for 5000 years as an important 
rop, and has played a similar part in Babylonia, Logg and the shores 
of the Black Sea. We find it in Greece in the tim f Homer, and also 
very early in Italy, whither it was int rotied from Koma It was 
2. It is found in the oldest Swiss rin Holdings ata time wie we find 
no trace of hempen or woollen fabrics. Sheep were domesticated as far 
back as the Stone period, but the wool could not be obtained from the 
hide without metal. The construction of sheep-shears (which are as old 
as the time of David) must have caused a great revolution in clothing 
and domestic industry. 
. The Flax of the Swiss pile-buildings is the small-leaved plant (L. 
angustifolium), which still grows wild on the shores of the Mediterranean, 
but is now nowhere cultivated in Europe. It must have also been grown 
lived in the ae of Europe a people who, in cattle-rearing and peris 
ary had reached a by no means low point of culture. 
. In Italy, in the time of the Emperors, a Summer Flax and a Mous ; 
Flax were cultivated, as at the present day. What form of Flax 
grown in Old Egypt is not yet known, but most likely it was the tie 
angustifolium, and afterwards followed the L. hyemale romanum, and. the 
L. — 
5. The common Flax has been evolved by cultivation from L. angusti- 
foires dei intermediate stages being L. a um and L. hyemale. The 
tre from which Tt has get is certainly the Mediterranean 
regi 
The following is Dr. Heer’s diagnosis of the forms of the species :— 
L. usitatissimum; sepalis ovatis acuminatis eglandulosis capsulam 
subæquantibus, foliis glabris lanceolatis vel EAER S trinerviis, 
icellis fructiferis erectis. 
Var.l. Root annual; stem solitary, erect; capsule :28—32 inch long ; 
seeds beaked at the apex :16—24 inch long. 
