199 
SEPARATION AND PREPARATION OF FLAX FIBRE. 
We have already seen that the stem of the Flax plant con- 
sists of a central wood-like part, called shove or boon, and of the 
tough fibres called bast or harl covered by cuticle, all cemented 
together by gummy and azotized compounds. These parts are 
so closely adherent to each other, and the fibres to one another 
and to the cellular tissue, that they are with difficulty sepa- 
rated from each other, and the fibres obtained for economic 
use. But it may be observed that if green vegetable matter 
be exposed to the continued influence of wet or of drought, 
disunion of the adherent parts takes place; and that they may 
then be readily separated from each other. The same effect 
takes place if some of the constituent parts are dissolved 
out by the agency of a chemical solvent, or water at 
different temperatures, the rest being set free, the fibres 
may then be easily separated. All these methods have been 
and are employed for the separation of Flax fibre in different 
localities. These are fully detailed in various works, as well as 
in the papers of the authors we have referred to, in the ‘Journal 
of the Royal Agricultural Society of England.’ The directions 
of the Royal Flax Society are full and detailed, and include 
most of the essentials given in Mr. MacAdam’s Prize Essay. 
The oldest method, probably, is that called Dew-retting, 
when the Flax straw or stems are spread out on the grass, and 
exposed to the action of the atmosphere, combined with that of 
dews or rain, or, in the absence of these, they are carefully 
watered. This, though an effectual, is an uncertain, and also 
a very tedious process, requiring from three weeks to a month 
for its completion. Archangel Flax is thus prepared. Mr. 
MacAdam informs us that it is practised among the Walloons, 
and also in the United States of America, and that Flax 
thus prepared requires a shorter time for bleaching. 
The most generally adopted plan is that of steeping the Flax 
stems, either in slow currents of water (and that of the River 
Lys is particularly celebrated) or in pits or pools of water. 
The action of water is useful, partly, by giving origin to fer- 
