invisible, and at the next moment visible as a dense opaque cloud?

6. It is the steam or vapour of water from the boiler. Within the boiler this steam is transparent and invisible; but to keep it in this invisible state a heat would be required as great as that within the boiler. When the vapour mingles with the cold air above the hot funnel, it ceases to be vapour. Every bit of steam shrinks when chilled, to a much more minute particle of water. The liquid particles thus produced form a kind of water dust of exceeding fineness, which floats in the air, and is called a cloud.

7. Watch the cloud-banner from the funnel of a running locomotive: you see it growing gradually less dense. It finally melts away altogether, and, if you continue your observations, you will not fail to notice that the speed of its disappearance depends on the character of

the day. In moist weather the cloud hangs long and lazily in the air; in dry weather it is rapidly licked up. What has become of it? It has been re-converted into true invisible vapour. The drier the air, and the hotter the air, the greater is the amount of cloud which can be thus dissolved in it.

8. Make the lid of a kettle air-tight, and permit the steam to issue from the pipe; a cloud is formed in all respects similar to that which issues from the funnel of the locomotive. To produce the cloud, in the case of the locomotive and the kettle, heat is necessary. By heating the water we first convert it into steam, and then by chilling the steam we convert it into cloud. Is there any fire in nature which produces the clouds of our atmosphere? There is the fire of the sun.

9. Thus, by tracing a river backwards from its end to its real beginning, we come at length to the

FLAX AND LINEN.

Al-ter'-nate-ly, by turns.

Brit'-tle, easily broken; frail.
Dam'-ask, linen woven with figures
(so called from the city of
Damascus).

Fi'-brous, containing fibres.
Frag-ile, brittle; weak.

Thebes, once a famous city, the
capital of Egypt, on the Nile.
Es-teemed', prized.

HE flax plant, which affords the raw material of the linen manufacture, is a graceful annual often found growing wild. The stalk is slender, about two feet high, and has small pointed leaves placed alternately on the stem. It bears exceedingly

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delicate pale blue flowers; but these fragile blossoms soon fade and fall away.

2. The flax plant seems to thrive best in a moist climate. It is largely and successfully cultivated in the north of Ireland. The seeds are sown in March; and the plants, when the seeds are ripe in autumn, are pulled up by the roots. Of the seeds linseed oil is made; and if the object be to save the seeds, the plants are spread out in the sun to dry, but if the fibrous part be the chief object, the plants are tied

By

up in bundles
in pools or ponds
this means the
stalk dissolves,
are loosened.
are then taken
in a sunny place
quite brittle,
part is easily
beating, from
plant. After

and laid to soak of water. pulpy part of the and the fibres 3. The bundles out and spread till the stalks are when the fibrous separated, by the rest of the various processes of cleaning and combing, it is in a fit state to be spun into thread. The chief textures manufactured from flax are known by the names of linens, damasks, shirtings, etc. The coarser and stronger kinds are used for sail-cloth, sheeting, canvas, etc. The finest flax texture is cambric; so named because it was first manufactured in the town of Cambrai, in the north of France.

4. The art of making fine linen out of flax fibres has been known and practised for more than four

wearer.

thousand years. Linen was esteemed above woollen cloth in the East, and is mentioned several times in the Scriptures as an indication of the rank of the In the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, we are told only two things about the outward state of the rich man, and they relate to his clothing and his food. He "was clothed in purple and fine linen.”

5. These words are quite sufficient to inform us of his riches, even if it were not added that "he fared sumptuously every day;" for the woollen cloth dyed purple was very rare and costly, only worn by kings and great persons; and the "fine linen" was a most choice and expensive material, and to be obtained only by the rich.

6. Linen was, in the earliest period of civilization, the most delicate material for garments. The ancient Egyptians were acquainted with the art of spinning and weaving flax in the time of their greatest prosperity, nearly three thousand years ago. Linen cloth was not only used for garments by kings and rich subjects in their lifetime, but the mummies found in the royal tombs of the pyramids at Thebes were wrapped in fine linen.