THE FLOKAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



171 



at Kome the whole series may be advantageously seen. Those who 

 may be disposed to study the subject more at lengtli will find it 

 treated with much skill and learning, and beautifully illustrated from 

 drawings by Mr. Gibson, in Mrs, Strutt's work above referred to ; 

 by Mrs. H. Tighe ; D'Israeli's ' Curiosities of Literature; ' Clarke's 

 ' Travels; etc. 



The Hemp, Cannahis sativa, is an equally interesting and im- 

 portant plant. If you do not know it, you may probably find it at 

 the very first search growing on a heap of cinder-ashes. In such a 

 spot it is pretty sure to be found in the garden of a person who 

 keeps cage birds ; and the common canary, a most elegant grass, 

 with perhaps the flax and the rape, are likely to be its companions. 

 Tou may do well to sow a few seeds of hemp in any sunny spot. 

 They will make a tuft of elegant herbage, and when they ripen their 

 seeds, they will be visited by the tomtits and other small birds, who 

 will perform some strange antics in their endeavours to obtain the 

 seed, the plant being so pliant that they cannot obtain a good foot- 

 hold upon it. 



The hemp is famed more especially for its fibre, from which the 

 greater part of all the cordage used in this country is derived. Dr. 

 Deakin says : — Throughout the whole of Italy, and in most of the 

 southern provinces of France, and in almost every part of Germany, 

 the cultivator of the soil allots a certain portion of his land to the 

 growth of the hemp ; and the industrious 

 women, both young and old, especially in 

 the rural districts of Italy, may be seen, 

 while tending their flocks and herds, 

 busily engaged spinning it in the ancient 

 manner, with the distaff, which is gene- 

 rally made of a portion of the stem of 

 the bamboo ; they afterwards wind the 

 thread upon bobbins, and weave it into 

 various fabrics for domestic use ; but it is 

 chiefly in the northern parts of Russia, 

 even as far north as Archangel, that the 

 hemp is grown as an article for exporta- 

 tion, and it is from that country that our 

 manufactories obtain the greater portion 

 of their supplies. 



The plant grows from six to twelve 

 feet high, and is more or less branched, 

 terminating in a bunch of greenish flowers. 

 The leaves are large, divided into five to 

 eight narrow lanceolate serrated segments 

 in a palmated manner ; and when the 

 plant is grown separated from others, it 

 has a pretty, graceful appearance. When 

 the plants have attained their full growth, they are pulled up, and 

 the roots chopped oil", and then spread out to dry in the sun ; when 

 they are sufiiciently dry they are beaten so as to separate from the 

 stem the leaves and smaller branches : the stems are then immersed 



THE ITALIAN DISTAFF. 



June. 



