FLAX

(Genu. Sachs.) The fibre of the Linum us it at if.-imum, which is spun into thread and woven into linen te Mures. 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 flu is then dl broken or beaten and winnowed, so as to separate the fibrous from the other parts; these are afterwards heckled, and prepared lor the spinner. (For an account of these operations, and of the machinery by which they are effected, see lire's Dictionary FLECHE.of.irts,In Fortification,,',-c, art. •• Flax.")a simple redan usually con structed at the foot of a glacis..Sec Bnu, FLEECE, [s. 473]