FLAX

(Germ, flachs.) The fibre of the Linmn usitati imum, which is spun into thread and woven into linen textures. The flax is reaped a little before the seeds are ripe; it is stripped, and the stalks are then soaked in water, or retted (rotted), when fermentation running into putrefaction ensues, so as to destroy the foreign matters with which the fibres are blended in the plant; the flax is then dried, and broken or beaten and winnowed, so as to separate the fibrous from the other parts; these are afterwards heckled, and prepared for the spinner. (For an account of these operations, and of the machinery by which they are effected, see IJre's Dictionari/ of Arts, Sfc, art. " Flax.") [s. 469]