enter into any modern consideration of Cannabis taxono- 
my. 
The most recent taxonomic innovation in understand- 
ing the genus Cannabis is that of the Russian botanist 
Janischewsky who, in 1924, published a new species, C._ 
ruderalis, This species is reputed to occur in the wild 
state in the Volga region, western Siberia, central Asia, 
and now to be widespread, probably in a weedy state, in 
northern and central Kurope and Russia. According to 
its author, Cannabis ruderalis differs from C. sativa in a 
number of characteristics of a morphological nature 
(darker colored akene covered with a special coat repre- 
senting the remains of the calyx and with a caruncle-like 
growth at the articulation of the akene) and of a biologi- 
‘al nature (the akene falling easily and germinating the 
following spring). 
IV 
Preliminary examination of the wood anatomy of 
material which we collected in Afghanistan and which 
we believe to represent Cannabis indica discloses differ- 
ences from that of material of C. sativa grown in the 
United States. This research, being carried out by Dr. 
Loran C. Anderson of Kansas State University, is in its 
preliminary stages and will be the subject of a later paper. 
The anatomical differences between these two species are 
very substantial, and Dr. Anderson feels that some com- 
parable differences in other groups of plants might be 
given even generic status. In this connection, it should 
be noted that earlier anatomical investigations in Russia 
(15) indicated important differences which seemed to 
point to three ‘‘types’’ of Cannabis. It was also probably 
anatomical differences which were basic to Lamarck’s 
statement in 1783 that one characteristic which distin- 
guished Cannabis indica from C. sativa was its much 
harder, woodier stem. 
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