ECONOMIC BOTANY. 123 



is increased if the ends of tlie fibres are lacerated into nume- 

 rous fibrils. 



8. The most important of all fibres used in spinning is Cot- 

 ton. It was cultivated in Egypt five hundred years before the 

 Christian era, but was not known to the ancient Egyptians. 

 In India it has been known from time immemorial. Now it 

 is cultivated in nearly all warm regions of the globe. Cotton 

 consists of hairs on the seeds of several species of Gossypium, 

 Mallow family. The most important are G. herbaceum, G. ar- 

 boreum and G. hirsutum. The climate, soil, mode of culture, 

 etc. have an influence on the fibre (cotton), as well as on the 

 habit of the plant. Each fibre is a single cell, sometimes an 

 inch long, which is at first cylindrical but more or less fiat- 

 tened when dry. The cell-wall is thicker than in most hairs. 

 The silk-cotton is from seeds of several species of Bombax, 

 also of the Mallow family. The hairs have a lustrous appear- 

 ance but are not very strong or durable. It is sometimes 

 mixed with cotton but most commonly used in stufiing cush- 

 ions, etc. 



9. The fibre longest used in spinning, namely Flax, is the 

 bast of Linum usitatissimum, a species of the Flax family (Li- 

 naceas). It is a slender annual, growing from two to five feet 

 high, and has small alternate, lanceolate leaves and blue 

 flowers. " The use of flax reaches back to the very earliest 

 periods of civilization, and it was most extensively and va- 

 riously applied in the prehistoric lake dwellings of Switzer- 

 land, even in those of the Stone period. Flax was the material 

 for making lines and nets for fishing and catching wild ani- 

 mals, cords for carrying the earthenware vessels and other 

 heavy objects; in fact one can hardly imagine how naviga- 

 tion could be carried on, or the lake dwellings themselves be 

 erected, without the use of the ropes and cords." (Keller.) 

 Flax is extensively cultivated in many lands; other spe- 

 cies are found in cultivation, but to a limited extent. In 

 warm regions more seed and less fibre, and in colder re- 

 gions more fibre and less seed are produced. The flax is 

 harvested before the seeds are ripe, when the bast at the base 



