334 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF [ Urticee. 
it’ likewise affords an intoxicating drug, it is also known for the tenacity of its fibre; 
which is employed by the mountaineers in Gurhwal and Sirmore for making a coarse 
sackcloth, and strong ropes for crossing their rivers. Considering that: this: fact 
was early made known by Col. Kirkpatrick in his account: of Nepal, ascertained by 
Gen. Hardwicke in his journey to Srinuggur, and repeated by Dr. Roxburgh im his 
account of experiments on substitutes for Hemp; it is remarkable that no one 
should yet have attempted to obtain it for commercial purposes, particularly as during 
the late war so many attempts were made’ to find an efficient substitute for this 
important plant ; and so many others are cultivated in India for the product which this 
yields of so superior a quality. It may be mentioned, that I have seen:it abundant 
in the Deyra Doon and plains of Northern India, especially in the upper part of 
the Doab Canal; of these only a small portion is employed for making bhang ; but this 
might probably be obtained from the leaves, even while the stems yielded the fibre. 
The Hemp is supposed by some to be a native of India; it no doubt is so of some 
part: -of Asia. It appears to be wild in the Himalayas. -The Arabic name kinnub 
_ is thought to have been corrupted into the Dutch Aennep, whence we'no doubt have our 
_ hemp; kinnabis is given as its Greek name by the eastern writers on Materia Medica; 
bunj as Persian ; and bhung and bhang as Hindee. It is said by Herodotus to have been 
made into cloth by the Thracians, and is now well known to be extensively cultivated 
in Italy, Poland, and Russia to the south of Moscow, with a small quantity only 
in England. It requires a rich soil and moist situation; is pulled when in flower, if 
the fibre alone be required, but if the 
as they have shed their pollen, and the others when the seed is ripe. These yield oil, 
which is employed by painters, or they are used for feeding poultry; so that every part of 
the plant is turned to some account. The leaves are sometimes smoked in India, and 
occasionally added to Tobacco, but are chiefly employed for: making bhang, and subzee, 
of which the intoxicating powers are so well known. But a peculiar substance is 
yielded by the plants in the hills, in the form ofa glandular secretion, which is collected 
by the natives pressing the upper part of the growing plant between the palms of their 
hands, and then ‘scraping off the secretion which adheres. This is well known in 
India by the name cherris, and is considered more intoxieating than any other prepara- 
tion of this plant, which is so highly esteemed by many Asiatics, serving them both 
for wine and opium; it has in consequence a variety of names applied to it in Arabic, 
some of which were translated to me, as “ _ of fuqueers,”—** leaf of delusion,” — 
‘* increaser of pleasure,;”—** exciter of desire,”—“ cementer of friendship,” &c. ‘Lin- 
heus was well acquainted with its ‘ vis narcotica, phantastica, dementens.”” It is as 
likely as any other to have been the sic of Homer. Besides hinnabis, it has 
defroonus assigned as a’ Greek name. f 
| ‘ din ‘the same family with the Hemp, the Urtica tenacissima or 
arsden, Rami of the Malays, a native of Sumatra, also of Rungpore, where 
it is called kunkomis, and which Dr. Roxburgh found one of the strongest of all the vege- 
table 
he seed also, then the male plants are pulled as soon 
