FLAX—Linum usitatisstimum. Family: Linacea. 
Uses: An ancient and most useful plant to which 
there is little waste. Linseed oil is expressed from the 
ripe seeds which leaves a mucilaginous cake useful for 
cattle feed or may be ground up into linseed meal so 
valued for poultices. The fibrous stems are the source 
of linen thread. The whole seeds are made into a 
soothing tea for their mucilaginous content which 
acts as a demulcent. 
Description: A slender, unbranching annual reach- 
ing three to four feet in height with blue-green, lance- 
shaped sessile leaves. The loose corymbs of pale-blue 
flowers which open singly last only until noon but the 
plants keep on blossoming for two or three months. The leaves are 
longer and more sharply pointed than the perennial garden Blue Flax, 
Linum perenne. The azure corollas are smaller and streaked with dark 
blue with five matching blue anthers. The round seed pod contains ten 
flat, shiny brown, oval seeds with pointed ends, 

wtf Ul. + 
CULTIVATION: Flax matures very rapidly and thrives in rich moist 
soil. It is often used in agriculture as a catch crop to follow winter 
crops. The seed is sown thickly in shallow drills in full sun. Seedlings 
are not thinned out as the tall unbranching stalks must crowd together 
for support. The woody pith of the stems is surrounded by thousands 
of individual fibres measuring not more than a thousandth of an inch 
in diameter. These were made ready for spinning into fine linen thread 
in Colonial days by several tedious hand processes called rippling, ret- 
ting and putting through a flax-brake and several sizes of fine combs. 
The plants were pulled up when the leaves became yellow and dried 
for several days. They were then drawn through a coarse iron ripple 
comb to break off the seed capsules which were gathered for making 
linseed oil and meal. The stalks were tied in bunches and placed, in a 
wooden crib in a shallow stream until the fibres softened. After this 
retting the bundles were dried once more and pounded in the flax- 
brake to remove the woody center pith. After passing through several 
sizes of heavy combs the long fibres were ready for spinning. Although 
