LINUM USITATISSIMUM C 0 M M 0 N FLAX. 
Class V. PENTANDRIA.— Order V. PENTAGYNIA. 
Natural Order LINEJ1. THE FLAX TRIBE. 
Of the genus Linum, nearly fifty species have been described by botanical writers. The genus is divided 
into two sections, the first having opposite, the second, alternate leaves. To the first section belongs the 
Linum usitatissimum , the subject of this article. It is an annual plant, growing occasionally in corn-fields 
and in sandy pastures ; flowering in July, and ripening its seeds in September. 
Common flax has a small, fibrous root ; a round, slender, smooth, leafy, and branched stem, which 
rises to the height of two feet. The leaves are scattered, small, lanceolate, entire, sessile, 3-nerved, alter- 
nate, and, on the upper part of the stem, of a glaucous, or sea-green colour. The flowers are numerous, 
collected in a corymbose pannicle, erect, and supported on longish footstalks. The calyx is composed of 
fine lanceolate, erect, permanent, 3-ribbed sepals, imbricate in aestivation. The corolla is funnel-shaped, 
and consists of five-notched, sky-blue, shining, veiny, oblong petals, which are narrow below, and gradually 
grow broader upwards, the aestivation being contorted. The filaments are five, awl-shaped, erect, the length 
of the calyx, and inserted into an annular receptacle, with 2-celled sagittate anthers. The germen is superior, 
ovate, and surmounted by five blue, capillary, spreading, undivided, bluntish stigmas, the length of the sta- 
mens. The fruit is a globular capsule, about the size of a pea, with ten cells and ten valves united in pairs, 
and crowned with a sharp spine. In each cell is lodged a single elliptical, pointed, smooth, and shining seed. 
The generic name, Linum, (X»vov,) is retained from the ancient Greek authors ; its etymology is obscure. 
Flax from whose fibres we procure the comfort of linen, and the beauty of lace ; also yields paper for 
our letters and books, and from the same material sails were first made for our vessels. 
Some have supposed that linen-cloth was made previous to the deluge, because we read that Noah 
slept in a tent ; but Egypt, which is called the land of Ham, soon became the garden of the East, and the 
seat of arts. Isis, the wife of his son Misraim, is said to have taught the art of agriculture, and employed 
herself diligently in cultivating the earth, for which she was deified, and the worship of Isis became universal 
in Egypt. Her priests were clothed in linen garments. The eastern kings and princes were also attired in 
linen ; flax, therefore, formed a considerable branch of the trade of Egypt ; and the method of making fine 
linen was carried to such perfection that the threads which were drawn out of it were almost imperceptible 
to the keenest eye. Pliny states, that some of the thread made from flax was finer, and more even, if pos- 
sible, than the web of a spider, and yet so strong that it would give a sound nearly as loud as a lute-string. 
He says, too, that he had seen an Egyptian net made of so minute a thread that notwithstanding every 
cord in the mesh was made of a hundred and fifty threads twisted, yet it could be drawn through the ring of 
a finger ; but that the most extraordinary net-work was that shewn in the temple of Minerva, in the isle of 
Rhodes, every thread of which was twisted three hundred and sixty-five times double, according to the days 
in a year. This curious piece of workmanship had formerly belonged to Amasis, who, from a common 
soldier, became King of Egypt, about five centuries before the Christian era. The Greeks made a linen of 
so fine a fabric, from the flax which they cultivated at Belvedere, that it sold by weight at the price of gold. 
Flax was used at a very early period for the stupendous temples of the heathens, and for the courts of 
their palaces, which were open buildings, surrounded with massive columns ; and, as the art of weaving 
became known, these gorgeous edifices were occasionally hung with rich curtains of linen cloth to shade or 
protect the guests from the sun or weather. At the conclusion of the grand festival given by Ahasuerus, as 
described in the book of Esther, he feasted all the people that were in Shushan, in the court of the garden 
of the king’s palace, where were white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and 
purple to silver rings, and pillars of marble. Julius Caesar caused the Forum, at Rome, to be covered with 
fine curtains, as also the whole of the principal street, called Sacra, from his own dwelling to the cliff of the 
