I 82 PLANT WORLD. 



ing the river in which the plant is grown, but the fear of 

 publicity and punishment leads the growers to suppress this 

 fact where possible. 



According to standard authorities, it appears that this 

 plant, though recognized under several forms and names, is 

 generalized under that of Cannabis sativa, and that it has 

 been known and used, especially in India and China, from 

 times most remote. In India, its apparent birthplace, its 

 several preparations are known as bhang, gunja, or ganga, 

 and churrus or charas. Bhang consists of the larger leaves 

 of the plant on which an efHorescence of resinous matter has 

 occurred. The leaves are in broken and partly agglutinated 

 pieces, having a dark green color and a heavy but not un- 

 pleasant smell, and it is used for smoking with or without 

 tobacco. When prepared in the form of a cake it is made 

 into an intoxicating beverage by infusing in cold water and 

 straining. Gunga is the flowering or fruit bearing tops of 

 the female plants. It is gathered in stalks of several inches 

 in length, the tops of which form a matted mass, from the 

 agglutination of flowers, seeds and leaflets by the abundant 

 resinous exudation which coats them. Churrus is the resin- 

 ous substance separated from the plant. The preparation 

 known as hashish used among the Arabs is similar in prepara- 

 tion to the gunja of India. It was, Herodotus says, used by 

 the Scythians. They crept inside of huts and threw the seeds 

 on hot stones. These gave oft a virulent intoxicating smoke, 

 by which the inmates were soon overpowered, and they 

 howled with delirious delight. 



Its narcotic properties were early known in India by 

 various names expressive of its qualities, such as causer of the 

 reeling gait, laughter mover, and so on. Royle suggests that 

 it is as likely as any other plant to have been nepenthe, the 

 assuager of grief. Its medicinal properties have long been 

 known to the Chinese, as a surgeon of that nation is said to 

 have used it as long ago as A. D. 220, and to have operated 

 on patients while they were -under its influence. In modern 



