The Probert Encyclopaedia of Nature

FLAX

Flax or linseed is a popular name of plants of the genus Linum, family Linaceae of which there are roughly 100 species. They are herbs or small shrubs with narrow leaves and yellow, blue or white flowers arranged in variously formed cymes. They occur in warm and temperate regions over the world. The cultivated species is Linum usitatissimum. The fibre which is used for making thread, and cloth called linen, cambric, lawn, lace, etc, consists of the woody bundles of the slender stalks. The fine fibres may be so separated as to be spun-into threads as fine as silk. A most useful oil is expressed from the seeds, and the residue, called linseed-cake, is one of the most fattening kinds of food for cattle. When the plant is ripe it is pulled up by the roots, tied together in little bundles, and usually left upright on the field until it becomes dry, when the seeds are separated, either by beating on a cloth or by passing the stems through an iron comb. The process of removing the seeds is called rippling. The stalks are then retted or rotted in water to free the flaxen fibre from the woody core or boon of the stem. Two operations are necessary to separate the fibres from the woody part of the stem. Traditionally the flax was first broken by means of a wooden handle and grooved board, or by revolving grooved rollers, and then the boon or woody part was entirely separated from the fibre by a broad flat wooden blade called a scutching blade, or later by a machine in which a number of knives' attached to the arms of a vertical wheel hit the flax in the direction of its length. The flax was next heckled, or combed with a sort of iron comb, and was then ready for spinning.
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