Flax health of linseed oil. Eventually, Flanders became the major center of the linen industry in the European Middle Ages. In North America, flax was introduced by the colonists and it flourished there, but by the early 20th century, cheap cotton and rising farm wages had caused production of flax to become concentrated in northern Russia, which came to provide 90% of the world's output. Since then, flax has lost its importance as a commercial crop, due to the easy availability of more durable fibres. Flax is grown for its seeds, which can be ground into a meal or turned into
Seeds of Change (book) Seeds of Change (book) Seeds of Change: Five Plants That Transformed Mankind is a 1985 book by Henry Hobhouse which explains how the history of the world since Columbus linked America to Europe and has been changed by five plants. It describes how mankind's discovery, usage and trade of sugar, tea, cotton, the potato, and quinine have influenced history to make the modern world. In the second edition of the book, Seeds of Change: Six Plants that Transformed Mankind, he adds the coca plant to the list. In 2004, he published a follow-up book "Seeds of Wealth: Four Plants That