OF ORNAMENTAL ANNUALS. 
83 
i 
CHAPTER XI. 
LINACE^E. 
Essential Character.— Sepals 3— 5. Petals 3— 5, hypogynous. Stamens 3— 5, liypogynous, combined at tbeir bases. Styles 3 5. 
' Capsule 10-celled. Cells 2-seeded. Seeds compressed. 
GENUS I. 
LINUM, Bauh. THE FLAX. 
Lin. Syst. PENTANDRIA PENTAGYNIA. 
Generic Character. —Sepals 5, entire. Petals 5. Stamens 5. Styles 5, rarely 1 or 3. —(G. Don.) 
1.—LINUM USITATISSIMUM, Lin. THE COMMON FLAX. 
Engravings. —Eng. Bot. t. 1357, 2nd Edition, vol. iii., t. 453; and 
our fig. 1, in Plate 15. 
Specific Character. —Plant erect, glabrous. Leaves lanceolate or 
linear acute, panicle corymbose. Sepals ovate, acute, or mucronate, 
with scarious or membranaceous margins. Petals rather crenated, three 
times larger than the calyx. — (G. Don.) 
Description, &c. —How many persons are there who wear linen, who have no idea of the simple beauty of 
the flower of the plant producing it. The common flax has large clear blue flowers ; and where it is allowed 
room to spread, it makes a handsome plant. The flax, though now found wild in Britain, is supposed to have 
been originally introduced from Egypt ; and it has been in cultivation for its fibre from almost the earliest 
period of civilisation. When grown entirely for its fibre, the seeds are sown as thickly as possible, in order that 
the plants may be drawn up with long and slender stems, and have a fine fibre ; and this is the case in Holland 
and the Netherlands, where it is cultivated extensively. When it is grown partly for its fibre, and partly for the 
seed which is called linseed, and used to make linseed oil, to feed birds, &c., it is sown much thinner and 
encouraged to form a branching head. If the fibre be the sole object, the plant is pulled green and instantly 
tied in bundles, which are placed in water to macerate; but when the seeds are thought valuable, they are 
suffered to ripen, and when the plant is pulled, the head is drawn through an instrument like a rake, or coarse 
comb, called a rippling machine, in order to separate the seeds from the stalks before they are laid in water. 
When the stalk is sufficiently decayed for the fibrous matter to be separated, it is what is called dressed; that is, 
the fibre is separated from the woody part, which is called the harl, by scutching, and hacking or breaking, and 
heckling or combing. It is afterwards spun and woven into linen. 
When grown in gardens, the seeds should be sown as thinly as possible; and when the plants come up they 
should be thinned out, so as to leave only three in a patch; and these should stand at a sufficient distance 
asunder to allow them room to branch. The soil should be deep, rich, and rather stiff. 
M 2 
