THB HEMP FAMILY. 355 



about Chorlton, Stretford, Broadheath, Prestwich, &c. Fl. summer. 



Annual. 



Curtis, ii. iU ; E. B. rviii. 123C. 



3. Pellitoky — ^Parietiiria officinalis.) 



Dry banks in lanes, and on old walls, ratber uncommon. Below 

 Bowdon old Church. Farm-house wall between Sale and Carrington 

 Moss. Dirty pig-stye walls about Mobberley, and under the yew 

 hedge at Mobberley old Hall. Near Stretford. Chaddock Lane, and 

 elsewhere thereabouts. (J. E.) Fl. summer. 



Curtis, ii. 283 ; E. B. xiii. 879 ; Baxter, iii. 224. 



The structure of the flowers is remarkably curious. For aa account of it, see 

 Curtis. 



Being plants usually of no beauty, nettles and their kindred are little cared for 

 by the gardener. The Urtica pilidifera, or Roman nettle, (E. B. ii. 148.) and 

 the Urttca Dodartii, are grown sometimes as curiosities ; and in green-houses i& 

 sometimes seen the Urtica biloba, admired for its beautifully reticulated leaves, 

 which are cleft nearly in two. 



CXIL— THE HEMP FAMILY. Cannabindcea. 



One of the smallest families in nature, being composed, so far as 

 hitherto discovered, only of the common hop and the common hemp. 

 The narcotic properties of the former, and the invaluable fibre yielded 

 by the stems of the latter, along with the great bea-uty of the twa 

 plants, give it an importance, however, unlikely ever to be gained by 

 many others which in compass and complexity exceed it twenty-fold. 

 Authors, in general, combine this family with the Urticaceae : but 

 there the ovule is erect, and the embryo straight and albuminous ; 

 while in the present, the ovule is pendulous, and the embryo ea;albu- 

 minous, and hooked or spirally coiled. 



The hemp-plant, or Cannabis sativa, is an elegant annual, indi- 

 genous to the cooler parts of India, and often cultivated in gai'dens as 

 a curiosity. The stems rise three to six feet high. The leaves are 

 quinate or septate, petiolate, dark green, rough, and half pendulous ; 

 the lobes lanceolate, three or four inches long, serrate, and acuminate. 

 The male flowers grow in long^, upright racemes ; the females (on 

 different individuals) are axillary and sessile. In both sexes they are 



25 a 



