148 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



have nowhere been found wild, which supports the 

 theory that they are only the result of cultivation. 



Hemp — Cannabis sativa, Linnseus. 



Hemp is mentioned, in its two forms, male and female, 

 in the most ancient Chinese works, particularly in the 

 Shu- King, written 500 B.c.^ 



It has Sanskrit names, hhanga and gangika? The 

 root of these words, ang or an, recurs in all the Indo- 

 European and modern Semitic languages : hang in Hindu 

 and Persian, ganga in Bengali,^ hanf in German, hemp 

 in English, chanvre in French, kanas in Keltic and 

 modern Breton,^ cannoMs in Greek and Latin, cannab 

 in Arabic.^ 



According to Herodotus (born 484 B.C.), the Scythians 

 used hemp, but in his time the Greeks were scarcely 

 acquainted with it.^ Hiero II., King of Syracuse, bought 

 the hemp used for the cordage of his vessels in Gaul, and 

 Lucilius is the earliest Roman writer who speaks of the 

 plant (100 B.C.). Hebrew books do not mention hemp.*^ 

 It was not used in the fabrics which enveloped the 

 mummies of ancient Egypt. Even at the end of the 

 eighteenth century it was only cultivated in Egypt for the 

 sake of an intoxicating liquid extracted from the plant.^ 

 The compilation of Jewish laws known as the Talmud, 

 made under the Roman dominion, speaks of its textile 

 properties as of a little-known fact.^ It seems probable 

 that the Scythians transported this plant from Central 

 Asia and from Russia when they migrated westward 

 about 1500 B.C., a little before the Trojan war. It may 

 also have been introduced by the earlier incursions of the 

 Aryans into Thrace and Western Europe ; yet in that case 

 it would have been earlier known in Italy. Hemp has 



^ Bretschneider, On the Study and Value, etc., pp. 5, 10, 48. 

 2 Piddington, Index ; Koxburgh, Fl. Ind., edit. 2, voL iii. p. 772. 

 ' Roxburgh, ibid. 



* Pteynier, Economie des Celtes, p. 448 ; Legonidec, Diet. Bas-Breton. 

 ^ J. Humbert, formerly professor of Arabic at Geneva, says the name 

 is Tcannah, Tcon-nah, hon-nah, hen-nah, kanedir, according to the locality. 

 ^ Athenseus, quoted by Hehn, Culturpfianzen, p. 168. 

 ^ Rosenmiilier, Hand. Bihl. Alterth. 

 ^ Forskal, Flora; Delile, Flore d'Egypte. 

 ^ Reynier, Economie des Arahes, p. 434. 



