IC cxxiiiB. CANNABiNACEiE (Rcndle). [Cannabis. 



Order CXXIIIb. CANNABINACEiE. 



(By A. B. Rendle.) 



Flowers dioecious, rarely moncecious, regular, apetalous. Male : 

 Perianth deeply 5-partite, calycine; segments imbricate. Stamens 

 5, opposite to the sepals. Filaments short, not inflexed ; anthers 

 erect in burl, 2 celled, dehiscence longitudinal. Female: Calyx 

 small, cup-like, loosely investing the ovary, entire ; staminodes 

 absent. Ovary superior, 1-celled, bearing at the apex a pair of 

 long filiform stigmas ; ovule solitary, pendulous from the apex 

 of the cell, anatropous, with two integuments. Fruit dry, indehis- 

 cent. Endosperm scanty, oily. Embryo rolled or curved. — Aromatic 

 herbs, perennial and twining, or annual, without latex. Leaves 

 opposite or alternate, long-stalked, palminerved ; stipules lateral 

 free, persistent. Flowers small, in axillary cymes, many-flowered in 

 the male, few-flowered in the female. 



Species 3, in the temperate parts of the northern hemisphere, introduced 

 elsewhere. 



1. CANNABIS, Tourn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 357. 



Flowers : Male numerous, shortly stalked, in lax drooping 

 terminal and axillary panicles. Sepals free, spreading or reflexed, 

 oblong. Anthers large, pendulous. Female fewer, in erect short 

 spikes leafv below, each flower sessile in the axil of a small enveloping 

 bract. Calyx inconspicuous, very thin, closely applied to and 

 shorter than the ovary. Ovary ovoid ; stigmas long, protruding. 

 Fruit small, indehiscent, enclosed in the persistent bract, compressed- 

 ovoid ; seed conforming to the thin crustaceous pericarp. Embryo 

 strongly curved ; cotyledons fleshy. — An aromatic annual herb. 

 Leaves alternate, or the lower opposite, palmately divided into 

 narrow spreading leaflets ; stipules linear, acute. 



1. C. saliva, Linn. Sp. PL ed. i. 1027. A densely leaved plant ; 

 stem erect, 3-10 ft. or more high, simple or slightly branched, slender, 

 somewhat rough with short stiffish hairs, greyish-green. Leaves 

 long-stalked, leaflets 5-7 or more, reduced to 3 in the upper leaves, 

 linear-lanceolate, attenuate at apex and base, margin sharply 

 serrate, the middle one the longest, from 3-6 in. in length, the lateral 

 successively shorter, scabridulous and dark green above, pale and 

 finely pubescent beneath : petiole slender, hirtellous. Male flowers 

 vellowish-green. Sepals puberulous on the back, -J in. long ; female 

 flower sheathed by a hirsute bract from which protrude the 

 long filiform stigmas. Fruit lJ-2 lin. long, smooth, pale greyish- 

 brown. — Welw. Apont. 547 and Synops. Explic. 45 ; Alph. DC. 



