Flax-plant, (Phormium tenax, Fork.) is a name which we may give to a plant that serves the inhabitants of New Zealand instead of hemp and flax. Of this plant there are two sorts; the leaves of both resemble those of flags, but the flowers are smaller, and their clutters more numerous; in one kind they are yellow, and in the other a deep red. Of the leaves of these plants, with very little preparation, they make all their common apparel, and also their strings, lines, and cordage, for every purpose; which are so much stronger than any thing we can make with hemp, that they will not bear a comparison.—From the same plant, by another preparation, they draw long flaxen fibres, which shine like silk, and are as white as snow: of these, which are very strong, they make their finest cloths; and of the leaves, without any other preparation than splitting them into proper breadths, and tying the strips together, they make their fishing-nets, some of which are of an enormous size.

The seeds of this valuable plant have been brought over into England; but, upon trial, appeared to have lost their vegetating power.

The fermentous parts of different vegetables have been employed in different countries for the same mechanic uses as hemp and flax among us. Putrefaction, and in some degree alkaline lixivia, destroy the pulpy or fleshy matter, and leave the tough filaments entire.

By curiously putrefying the leaf of a plant in water, we obtain the fine flexible fibres which constituted the basis of the ribs and minute veins, and which form as it were a skeleton of the leaf. In Madagascar, different kinds of cloth are prepared from the filaments of the bark of certain trees boiled in strong ley; and some of these cloths are very fine, and approach to the softness of silk, but in durability come short of cotton: others are coarser and stronger, and last thrice as long as cotton; and of these filaments they make sails and cordage to their vessels. The stalks of nettles are sometimes used for like purposes, even in France; and Sir Hans Sloane relates, in one of his letters to Mr Ray, that he has been informed by several, that muslin and calico, and most of the Indian linens, are made of nettles. A strong kind of cloth is said to be prepared in some of the provinces of Sweden of hop-stalks; and in the Transactions of the Swedish Academy for 1750, we have an account of an experiment relating to this subject: A quantity of the stalks was gathered in autumn, which was equal in bulk to a quantity of flax sufficient to yield a pound after preparation. The stalks were put into water, and kept covered with it during the winter. In March they were taken out, dried in a stove, and dressed as flax. The prepared filaments weighed nearly a pound, and proved fine, soft, and white; they were spun and wove into five ells of fine strong cloth. Unless the stalks are fully rotted, which will take much longer time than flax, the woody part will not separate, and the cloth will prove neither white nor fine.