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fibres to surround and adhere to the woody cylinder inside 
the plant. 
The different kinds of flax are sown for different purposes, 
and if need be, are watched with judicious care in every 
stage, from the selection of the seed and adaptation to 
soil, so that all the plant shall be of like growth in length, 
to the care of weeding out, and the preservation of the 
young plant, and the precise time for pulling up, if very 
fine fibre is required. Some varieties grown in Belgium, 
and, indeed, elsewhere, have a degree of attention that 
would scarcely be expected to be required by a plant that 
grows in nearly every country. 
I have seen in Holderness some lands growing fine tall 
flax, with its beautiful and delicate pale blue flowers. 
By the sides were stakes, and upon these were spread nets 
over and above the heads of the flax. It was reported that 
a foreign flax, of peculiarly fine fibre, could be grown close, 
aspiring upwards to the light, yet so slender and delicate 
that the winds would easily break down the fragile slender 
stalks ; to remedy this, stakes are said to be driven, and 
tarred rope and other support given, that .the crops 
may not be cast down by the wind. How far this system 
is advantageous, of spreading light net work to protect from 
the wind, and act as " artificial clouds," I cannot say, but 
I name it as a beautiful experiment, whose repetition and 
results are due to the Messrs. Marshall, of Leeds. 
If the entire plant be subjected to burning, it is found by 
Sir R. Kane to yield about 5 per cent, of ashes ; the 95 per 
cent, consisting of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, and a little 
nitrogen. 
The pure fibre, the flax, contains but little besides a trace 
of ash ; the gum and the woody fibre, but especially the 
gummy cement, contain the great proportion of saline and 
solids. 
