HEMPSEED AND BHANG 



one-sixteenth part of the expenses of our Indian Empire. 

 The story of how Great Britain forced China to take our 

 opium is not a creditable one nor agreeable to read. The 

 plant was known in ancient Egypt, Persia, and Rome, and 

 was used in China for at least two hundi'ed years before 

 our times. 



What is supposed to be the original wild plant from which 

 the opium poppy was derived seems to have been cultivated 

 in the ancient Swiss lake dwellings, for the seeds of Papaver 

 setigerum occur there in abundance. The price of the crop 

 may amount to £90 or £120 per acre. 



Another very ancient plant is the Hemp, Cannabis saliva. 

 It was known to Herodotus, who says that " in the country 

 of the Massagetae there is a tree bearing a strange produce 

 which they casting into a fire inhale its fumes on which they 

 straightway become drunk." It is a tall, rather handsome 

 annual, with stems from three to fifteen feet high. It is 

 cultivated all over the world, from the Equator to 60° north 

 latitude, but for different purposes. In India it is chiefly 

 for the resin, " haschisch, churrus, bhang." (That was the 

 drug used by the Count of Mc«ite Cristo.) In Russia it is 

 for the seed and the fibre that the plant is cultivated, and 

 in France, Italy, and Austria the fibre seems to be the most 

 important product. 



Some of the plants produce only stamens or male flowers. 

 The fibre given by these is stronger and more tenacious than 

 that of the female plant, which, however, is finer and more 

 supple. The fibre obtained from the cold northern districts 

 of Russia is said to be the strongest of all. 



The preparation of the fibre is a long, tedious, and 

 laborious operation. It is also unhealthy, for the fibre 

 has to be " retted " (steeped in water so that the soft parts 

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