ut is for mixing the paints of artists. To make Linseed tea, wash
two ounces of Linseed by putting them into a small strainer, and
pouring cold water through it; then pare off as thinly as possible the
yellow rind of half a lemon; to the Linseed and lemon rind add a
quart of cold water, [204] and allow them to simmer over the fire for
an hour-and-a-half; strain away the seeds, and to each half-pint of
the tea add a teaspoonful of sugar, or sugar candy, with some lemon
juice, in the proportion of the juice of one lemon to each pint of tea.

The seeds afford but little actual nourishment, and are difficult of
digestion; they provoke troublesome flatulence, though sometimes
used fraudulently for adulterating pepper. Flax seed has been mixed
with corn for making bread, but it proved indigestible and hurtful to
the stomach. In the sixteenth century during a scarcity of wheat, the
inhabitants of Middleburgh had recourse to Linseed for making
cakes, but the death of many citizens was caused thereby, it bringing
about in those who partook of the cakes dreadful swellings on the
body and face. There is an Act of Parliament still in force which
forbids the steeping of Flax in rivers, or any waters which cattle are
accustomed to drink, as it is found to communicate a poison
destructive to cattle and to the fish inhabiting such waters. In
Dundee a hank of yarn is worn round the loins as a cure for
lumbago, and girls may be seen with a single thread of yarn round
the head as an infallible specific for tic douloureux.

The Purging Flax (_Linum catharticum_), or Mill Mountain
(_Kamailinon_), or Ground Flax, is a variety of the Flax common
on our heaths and pastures, being called also Fairy Flax from its
delicacy, and Dwarf Flax. It contains a resinous, purgative principle,
and is known to country folk as a safe, active purge. They infuse the
herb in water, which they afterwards take medicinally. Also a
tincture is made (H.) from the entire fresh plant, which may be
given curatively for frequent, wattery, painless diarrhoea, two or
three [205] drops for a dose with water every hour or two until the
flux is stayed.

FOXGLOVE.

The purple Foxglove (_Digitalis purpurea_) which every one knows
and admires for its long graceful spikes of elegant bell-shaped
brilliant blossoms seen in our woods and hedges, is also called the
Thimble Flower, or the Finger Flower, from the resemblance of
these blossoms to a thimble or to the fingers of