CULTIVATED AND WILD 



Hemp 

 Fibre. 



CANNABIS 



8ATIVA 

 Fibre 



[Cf. Jtm-lmiiuii Hamilton, Stdt. Ace. Dinaj., 1H3U. 207; K.xk. Oh*. Hemp 

 isui ; Baden-Powell, 1'b. 1'rod. 1868, 292-3, 377, 604 7; 

 1 h under Kerr, Cult, and Trade in (/an/a, 1877 ; Oanja and Other Drugs 

 '.. I'.irlmm., Paper, March 3, 1893; Pharmacog. Ind., 1893, iii., 318-37; 

 Ind. Hemp Drug* Comm., 1894, 7 vols. (abbreviated into H.D.O.R.); 

 mi, AV//. Cult, and U tea of Ganja, 1893; Imp. Qaz. t Ind., 1904, iv., 259-61; 

 ><>. Tech. 1'rud. (\\iutonand Barber, transl.), 1907, 77-81.] 



/. THE FIBRE HEMP. (Seed, pp. 256-7, and Narcotics, pp. 258-63.) 

 Cultivated and Wild States of the Plants. The remarks already 

 le regarding the male and female conditions of t'ammhis sutirn have 

 Heated some of the chief opinions that prevail in Europe regarding 

 tin uls of cultivation. It has moreover been incidentally implied that 

 India, hemp is grown for either of two main purposes: (a) the 

 sply of the narcotic ; (6) the production of fibre. It is, however, 

 generally admitted that in the plains of India, while the narcotic 

 iciple is readily developed, the fibre is as a rule but very imperfectly 

 led. In many reports it is affirmed that certain forms of hemp con- 

 a stronger or a better flavoured narcotic than others, circumstances 

 plained by some authorities as being consequent on more careful 

 sparation. [Of. Kotah State Mem., H.D.C.R., app. iii., 178.] Prain 



" Bhang is held in very different degrees of estimation according to climatic 

 locality in which it is grown ; that from the plains is valued more 

 ;hly than that from the submontane tracts along the Himalaya." 

 the North- West Himalaya the plant is fairly extensively cultivated, 

 irever, as a source of fibre, the narcotic being but indifferently produced, 

 some localities ganja is said to be obtained, in others charas, in a third 

 ing, while in Sind it is reported that the plant affords a good fibre as well 

 a fair quality of bhang. These peculiarities are not, however, by 

 snt opinion accepted as involving conditions that are even racial in 

 lue, but are viewed as the direct results of climatic and soil influences, change from 

 lin, moreover, remarks, " We must conclude that, having reached ^^^. 

 lia as a fibre-yielding species, the plant developed the narcotic yielding, 

 jperty for which it is now chiefly celebrated there." So also the H.D. 

 jnimissioners in their Report (i., 17) observe, " The function of the 

 smmission is to test by the information they have collected the views 

 grein expressed regarding the probable existence of races capable of 

 jlding as a speciality the different products fibre, ganja, charas and 

 ing. The only differences recognised in the plant by the people are Differences 

 etween the wild and the cultivated plant, the male and the female and the S People. 7 



ties of the male and female plants already referred to." Summing up, 

 i Commissioners, however, observe that " there is no evidence of racial 

 iciality or differentiation of the decided sort suggested " by some writers, 

 ularly it may be pointed out that Roxburgh was apparently much 

 ipressed with the absence of distinctive varieties. " Few vegetables," 

 remarks, " so widely diffused over almost every part of the known world, 

 id under the immediate management of man, have undergone less change." 

 Trans. Soc. Arts, London, 1804, xxii., 385). It is thus certain the plant 

 varied structurally to a far less extent than might have been antici- 

 ited. But racial characteristics are not necessarily botanical mani- Racial but 

 stations, and that the plant has changed is at once evident by the 

 widely different products which it affords. It has not as yet, however, 

 been critically examined and compared province by province on the 



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