142 DESCRIPTION OF FLAX PLANT. 
considering that Jute is grown and prepared there, and sold at 
still lower prices. 
In order to succeed in the culture in new situations, it is 
necessary to know what is considered requisite in the situations 
where the cultivation is successful. We shall, therefore, first 
consider the nature of the plant, and then its culture in 
Europe, and, subsequently, the attempts which have already 
been made in India to produce Flax. From these, and the 
extended information which we now possess, we shall draw our 
conclusions respecting eventual success, either in the old or in 
new localities, of the wide-spread territories of India. 
THE FLAX PLANT AND ITS PRODUCTS. 
The Flax plant belongs to the natural family of Linacez, so 
named from the botanical name (Linum) of the genus to which 
it belongs. The species are found chiefly in temperate parts of 
the world, with a few in tropical regions ; most are remarkable 
for the tenacity of the fibre of their inner bark. The native 
country of the Flax plant is unknown ; but as it was cultivated 
by the earliest civilised nations, it is probably a native of 
oriental regions, from which it has travelled southwards into 
India and northwards into Europe. 
Description of plant—It is an annual, with long and slender but fibrous 
roots, which penetrate to a considerable distance into the soil, where this is 
loose and friable. The stem is smooth, simple, and erect; branched, or, as 
usually cultivated, branching only towards the top; from one and a half to 
three feet in height. It consists of a pith and woody part, with the layer of 
bast fibres covered with cuticle on the outside. 
The leaves are alternate, sessile, linear-lanceolate, and smooth. The 
flowers, of a blue colour, are arranged in a corymbose panicle. The sepals 
or green outer leaflets of the flower are five in number, ovate acute, slightly 
ciliated, nearly equal to the capsule in length. The petals, blue in colour 
and five in number, are obscurely crenate, comparatively large, and deciduous. 
The stamens are equal in number to the petals and alternate with them, 
having their filaments united together near their bases into a kind of ring. 
The ovary, or young seed-vessel, is divided into five cells, and is surmounted 
by five stigmata. Capsule, or bodl, roundish, but rather pointed at the apex, 
divided into five perfect cells, each of which is again subdivided by an 
imperfect partition, thus forming ten divisions, each of them containing a 
single seed. These seeds are oval in shape, flattened or plump, smooth and 
shining, of a brownish colour externally, but sometimes white ; always white 
internally : the seed-coat mucilaginous, and the kernel of the seed oily and 
farinaceous. 
