LINUM USITATISSIMUM, Linn: 



[Fiie Plate XLIV.] 



English, flax, linseed ; Veenaculak, alsi, tisi ; Sanscrit, uma, atasi, utasi.f 



Natural order Linece, tribe Eulineoe. A smooth erect annual, 3-4 ft. high. Stems terete, 

 woody at the base, usually simple below, corymbosely branched above ; stipules none. Leaves 

 about 1 in. long, narrow lanceolate, entire, 3-nerved. Flowers arranged in broad corymbose 

 cymes ; pedicles 1-1;^ in. long, slender, erect. Sepals 5, ovate, acuminate, 3-nerved, edged with 

 a membranous ciliated margin. Petals 5, bright blue with darker coloured veins, rarely white, twice 

 as long as the sepals, ovate with a cuneate base. Stamens 5, coherent below, alternating with 

 minute gland-like staminodes. Styles free ; stigmas linear, clavate. Ovary syncarpous ; carpels 

 5, each divided into two locelli by spurious partitions from the placentas, axile margins ciliate ; ovules 

 10, one in each locellus. Capsule sub-globose, a little longer than the sepals, acute at the apex. Seeds 

 about \ in. long, compressed, ovoid ; testa rich chestnut brown, rarely white, smooth and shining. 



M. DecandoJle in his recently published work on Cultivated Plants observes that 

 this plant is indigenous in certain localities situated between the Persian Gulf, the 

 Caspian and the Black Seas. He traces the history of this plant and that of a perennial 

 species named L. angusiifolium, which latter appears to have been cultivated in very 

 ancient times, and to have been replaced by L. usilatissimum within the last 4 or 5,000 

 years. 



Flax is grown in India solely for its seed, and no use whatever is made of the fibre 

 which its stems contain. The object of cultivation being to promote flowering and not 

 stem growth, it is sown much thinner than it is in Europe, and the plant has developed 

 a branching habit of growth which would greatly lessen the value of its fibre, even were 

 it now carefully cultivated for that purpose. Numerous experiments have been made 

 within the last 40 years in growing flax in India, and very considerable success was ob- 

 tained by a Belgian flax grower in Tirhoot with seed which had been imported from 

 Europe. But it is improbable that flax culture could be extended on any other system 

 than that followed by indigo planters, under which the grower receives a cash advance at 

 sowing time, together with a guarantee that his crop will be purchased at a fixed price. 

 Flax fibre would be useless to a cultivator unless he was certain of gaining a sale for it. 

 It does not seem that any energetic attempts have been made to extend flax culture on 

 this S3'^stem, and what eff'orts have been made to promote it have been confined to ex- 

 periments which have indeed proved the possibility of successlul flax growing, but have 

 given native cultivators no immediate incentive to undertaking it. 



* References :— l^oxb. FL Tnd. ii. 110 ; Rovlo 111. 82 ; W. & A. Prod. 134 ; Hook. Fl. Brit Ind. i. 410 ; Baden- 

 Powell Pui.j. Prod. 331 ; Gaz N.-W. P, x. 771 ; Bentley and Trim. Med. PI. 39 ; DC. L'Orig. Pi. Cult. 95. 

 t Piddiugton ludex ; Koxb. I.e. 



