the fibre of Linum usitatissimum, a plant of the natural order Linaceae, which is spun into thread and woven into linen textures. (See Botany, vol. v., p. 187.) The seeds yield on expression a large quantity of oil, known as linseed-oil; and the residue, called linseed-cake, is much employed to fatten cattle. Flax has been cultivated from the earliest ages in Great Britain and many other countries; but in general we have been in the habit of importing a large proportion of our supplies, particularly from Russia. The fibre of Phormium tenax, or New Zealand flax as it is commonly called, is said to exceed every other kind of fibre in strength, and has been imported in some quantity as a substitute for hemp in the manufacture of canvas and cordage. For the culture of flax, see Agriculture, vol. ii., p. 332, &c. (See also Spinning; Linen; Hemp.)

The quantity of flax imported into Great Britain has for a considerable number of years been gradually increasing. Twenty years ago the annual importation was about 48,000 tons; ten years since it had increased to about 65,000 tons; and at the present time it is about 80,000 tons. The proportion per cent. of this quantity imported from different countries may be judged of by the following table, calculated on the average imports of the years 1840, 1844, and 1849:

| Year | Russia | Prussia | Holland | Belgium | France | Other countries | |------|--------|---------|---------|---------|--------|---------------| | 1840 | 690 | 70 | 740 | | | | | 1844 | 110 | 100 | 100 | 65 | 40 | | | 1849 | 65 | 70 | 40 | 35 | 15 | |

During the last few years great efforts have been made to extend and improve the manufacture of this valuable fibre in various parts of the world. The increase under the last head in the preceding table, for 1849, is chiefly due to the importation of flax from Egypt. It must be remembered that, in addition to the above-mentioned quantity of flax annually imported, the manufacturers of England have consumed rather more than a quarter as much again, cultivated in various parts of the British empire, but chiefly in Ireland. This proportion has also considerably increased during the last twenty years, and a most marked improvement in the quality of the flax itself has also been effected; a change in great measure to be traced to the efforts of the Royal Society for the Promotion and Improvement of Flax in Ireland. At the thirteenth annual meeting of that society the number of acres under flax cultivation in Ireland was given as follows:

| Year | Acres | |------|-------| | 1848 | 53,863 | | 1849 | 60,314 | | 1850 | 91,040 | | 1851 | 138,619 | | 1852 | 138,009 | | 1853 | 175,495 |

The value of flax depends in part on the climate and soil in which it is cultivated; and in part also on the mode in which the fibre is prepared, and on the care and skill with which the process is conducted. According to its quality, its value varies from about £40 to £180 per ton. Another circumstance which has given a considerable impetus to the cultivation of flax is the introduction of the late R. B. Schenck's new process of steeping. Formerly the separation of the fibre from the woody matter of the stem was effected by the process of "retting," of which there were three modifications—dew-retting, pond-retting, and river-retting. The stem of the plant consists essentially of two parts—a wooden centre or core, the shove or boon, and the external fibrous portion, which, when separated from the former, constitutes the flax. These two are cemented together by a glutinous matter, not soluble in water alone, and which must be got rid of by some means before the pure fibre can be separated from the woody shove. The old mode consisted merely in exposing the flax stems to air and moisture, under circumstances favourable to fermentation or incipient putrefaction, so that the glutinous matter being destroyed, the fibre could then be easily separated from the shove. Whether this species of fermentation is effected by exposing the flax for some weeks to the action of the dew and rain spread over meadows, whether it is effected by steeping it in ponds or pits of stagnant water, or, lastly, by sinking it in large wooden frames in the current of a deep and slow flowing river, there are serious practical difficulties which have long directed the attention of ingenious men to the possibility of discovering a less objectionable mode of preparing flax. During the slow retting of the flax, certain putrid vapours are given off in large quantity, the water and the very air itself are poisoned; and this alone is no trifling objection to the process. So serious an objection, indeed, have these putrid exhalations been found to the use of water-retting, that in some districts of Belgium, in Hainault and Namur especially, it is forbidden by law, as being dangerous to "public safety and the health of the inhabitants." In Flanders, however, no such laws are in force, and it is there commonly believed that dew-retted flax is, of necessity, meagre and dry. Many different mo- difications and peculiar modes of retting are followed in the various flax districts of Belgium, Holland, and France; and in different localities dissimilar modes of retting have long been in use, often involving very considerable variations in principle. Thus, at Courtrai the flax crop is dried in the field, and stored for some months in barns, before it undergoes the process of retting in the river Lys. In the district of Waes it is retted immediately after being gathered, the green stems being at once thrown into pits of stagnant water. As, however, the whole operation, in every kind of water-retting, depends on the amount of fermentation produced (which must be enough to insure the decomposition of the glutinous matter, but not enough to cause any injury to the fibre), the process is necessarily slow, tedious, and very uncertain, especially towards the close of the operation, because then the flax must be most carefully watched, in order to put a stop to the fermentation as soon as the desired effect is produced. A slight change of temperature, or exposure for a few hours when the fermentation is complete, may involve the ruin of the fibre. Dew-retting is of course even slower than water-retting; depending, as it necessarily does, on the nature of the season, and being greatly retarded by long-continued dry weather.

During the last half century various attempts have been made to effect the separation of the fibrous from the woody portion of the flax stem by chemical and mechanical means. In several cases the results at first appeared to be very promising, but in every instance it was soon found that there were insuperable practical objections. Among chemical agents, solutions of sulphuric acid, caustic potash, caustic soda, quicklime, and soft soap, were all in turn tried and discarded; and among mechanical processes, the ingenious contrivances of Mr James Lee and Messrs Hill and Bundy shared the same fate. Whatever may have been the comparative merits of the two processes of these rival inventors, in the course of a few years both were relinquished and forgotten. Various other ingenious mechanical arrangements have been devised, but hitherto they have had very little success.

Schenck's process, for which he obtained a patent in 1846, is undoubtedly a very important improvement. It consists merely in steeping the flax stems in warm water, heated artificially to the temperature best suited to fermentation. In this simple way the operation is rendered rapid and certain, all uncertainty from fluctuations in the temperature and weather is avoided, and the whole process is entirely under the command of the manufacturer. The temperature best suited for this purpose is about 80°, or from 80° to nearly 90°. Above this point the process proceeds too rapidly, and the fibre is almost sure to be more or less injured. The time required is from about 70 to 90 hours. It appears to be generally admitted that the warm-water steeping increases the percentage of fibre obtained from the flax stem over that obtained by the old modes of retting by nearly one-fifth; and that, whilst the fineness and spinning qualities of the fibre are increased, the strength is in no way weakened or diminished, unless the process be permitted to proceed too far,—an accident that need never happen, from the complete control over it which the manufacturer has throughout. Although there is no doubt as to the practical value of the use of warm water in flax-retting, yet the introduction of Schenck's process is far from removing all the difficulties of the flax manufacture; much still remains to be effected, and it is by no means improbable that ere long a yet more perfect process may be devised.

It is interesting to observe, that the use of warm water in the preparation of vegetable fibre is not altogether new, it having been employed by the Malays, and by the natives of Rungpoor, in Bengal. The process adopted at Ben-coolen is stated by Dr Campbell to consist in steeping the stems of the hemp in warm water, in which it is allowed to remain for two days and nights. The old German process, called "Molkerei," sometimes used in preparing the finer sorts of flax, is also, to some extent, an application of the same principle. In this mode of retting the flax was steeped for four or five days in a warm mixture of milk and water, and thus the desired degree of fermentation in the flax stems was produced. This operation must be distinguished from the more modern one in which sour milk was used, in order to give a good colour to linen, a process introduced by the Dutch towards the middle of last century. The linen was boiled in a weak alkaline lye, and subsequently treated with sour butter-milk, for the purpose of aiding in removing the alkali, and dissolving the earthy impurities present in the fibre. Occasionally, also, salt of sorrel was used for the same purpose; and in 1775 Reuss states that sulphuric and muriatic acids might be used for the same end; but that being too costly, they had not as yet come into general use. Of course, all processes in which boiling or even hot water is used, are quite different in their mode of action from those in which only warm water is employed. When boiling-water is used, it is with a view of dissolving and removing the useless matters which incrust the fibrous parts of the plant; whilst, on the other hand, warm water is used to soften them, and to aid in their patrefaction or decomposition through the agency of fermentation. In 1787 much interest was excited in Ireland by the publication of a plan for improving the retting of flax by the action of hot water. In this scheme it was proposed to scald the flax-stems in boiling-water to soften them, and to remove a portion of the extraneous vegetable matters which they contain; and it was conceived that after this treatment the subsequent retting of the flax would be more rapid, certain, and manageable; so that time would be saved, the noisome process of pond-retting be obviated, and the result be to yield a stronger and whiter fibre. The minute and careful experiments of Hermstädt on the chemical principles involved in the retting of flax (made about the beginning of the present century) threw much light on the whole subject, and to some extent indicated the influence of temperature on the success of the operation.

Flax-cotton is a material prepared from flax, hemp, and other vegetable fibres, and which very nearly resembles the fibre of the Gossypium or cotton-plant. M. Clauszen's ingenious process for making flax-cotton (patented August 1850) consists essentially in boiling the cut and crushed stems of the flax, hemp, or other plant, in a dilute solution of caustic soda, containing about $\frac{1}{3}$ part of alkali. The fibrous matter is then removed, and plunged into a bath of dilute sulphuric acid, containing $\frac{1}{3}$ part of acid, in which it is boiled for about an hour. It is next transferred into a solution containing about ten per cent. of carbonate of soda; and, lastly, when it has remained in the latter for an hour, it is plunged into a weak solution of sulphuric acid, consisting of one part of acid to 200 or 500 parts of water; in this it is left for about half an hour, and the process is completed. The effect of these several processes is "to divide and split up" the fibre in a most remarkable manner, so as completely to alter its character. Flax thus treated is converted into a substance very nearly resembling cotton. It is probable that flax-cotton can be advantageously used in the manufacture of mixed fabrics, as it appears capable of being spun with wool, silk, and other fibres; it may, therefore, perhaps hereafter lead to several new and important practical applications.

The idea of modifying the fibre of flax and hemp, so as to convert it into a kind of cotton, is by no means new. In 1747 Lillijkreezes and Pauquiss described a mode of converting flax into "cotton," by boiling it for some time in a solution of caustic potash, and subsequently washing it with soap. In 1775 considerable quantities of refuse flax and hemp were converted into "flax-cotton" by Lady Flaxman, Moira, with the aid of T. B. Bailey, of Hope, near Manchester. The full details of the process employed do not appear to have been published; but from Lady Moira's letters in the Transactions of the Society of Arts for 1775, it appears that the fibre was boiled in an alkaline lye, or a solution of kelp, containing carbonate of soda, and subsequently scoured. The result of this was that "the fibres seem to be set at liberty from each other," after which it may be "carded on cotton cards." It appears that at this time flax-cotton "was made and sold at 3d. a pound;" and Lady Moira states, that she believes that it takes colours better than flax. It is curious to observe the fate of Lady Moira's scheme; she says,—"I have no reason to be vain of the samples I have sent you; they merely show that the material of flax-cotton, in able hands, will bear manufacturing, though it is my ill fortune to have it discredited by the artizans who work for me. I had, in Dublin, with great difficulty, a gown woven, and three waistcoats; but had not the person who employed a weaver for me particularly wished to oblige me, I could not have got it accomplished."

Subsequently to this, several attempts were made in Germany to convert flax into a fibre resembling cotton. In 1777, Baron Meisinger proposed to convert flax into a sort of cotton, by the action of alkaline solutions, &c. In 1780 a factory was established at Berchtoldsdorf, near Vienna, for the practical working of this process; and similar plans were subsequently brought forward by Kreutzer in 1801, Stadler and Haupfner in 1811, by Sokou in 1816, and by several others. At the factory at Berchtoldsdorf, not only was flax converted into cotton, but likewise a useful cotton-like fibre was prepared from tow and refuse flax; and the same is said to have been done by Haag, near Pressburg, in 1788, by Göbell in 1803, and Segalla in 1811. Whether these various plans failed from the effects of jealousy and opposition, like that which prevented Lady Moira from introducing her "flax-cotton," is unknown, but it does not appear that any of them were long persevered in: it is probable, that in most cases the neighbouring manufacturers set themselves against the introduction of flax-cotton: for Beckmann, who speaks of its manufacture near Brunswick, states that the work-people determined not to use the new material, though at the same time he observes, that excellent fustians were made which could not be distinguished from those manufactured with ordinary cotton. The extreme similarity of flax-cotton to ordinary cotton is also remarked by Des Charmes (1799), who states, that if the staple be cut before it is carded, it is not possible to distinguish it from cotton, either in its raw state, or when manufactured. The matter was subsequently investigated by Berthollet, by Gay Lussac, and by Giorbert, who employed alternately steepings in hot solutions of soap, alkali, and sulphuric or muriatic acid. Berthollet observes, that equally fine cotton is obtained from the commonest refuse tow as from the best flax.

For some valuable information on fibrous materials, the produce of India, which may be cheaply and usefully substituted for Russian hemp and flax, see "The Fibrous Plants of India fitted for Cordage, Clothing, and Paper," by J. Forbes Royle, M.D., F.R.S., Lond, 1855; and also an article, entitled "Indian Substitutes for Russian Produce" in the Edinburgh Review for July 1855.