CHABACTEEISTICS AND DESCEIPTION. 117 



belonging to the natural family, or the nettle tribe. In 

 the Linnaean system, it belongs to the class Dicecia (two 

 houses), and the order Pentandria (five males) ; that is, 

 the male and female flowers grow on separate and distinct 

 plants, and each male flower contains five stamens, or 

 fructifying organs. In the female plant, the flowers are 

 solitary in the axillae of the leaves ; in the male they grow 

 in thin pendulous spikes, at the ends of the stem and 

 branches. Some female flowers, however, are occasionally 

 found amongst the males, and some males also amongst 

 the females. It would, therefore, prove nothing contrary 

 to the views which modern botanists hold, with respect 

 to the functions of the anthers and their pollen, if 

 instances could be adduced of female hemp-plants having 

 produced perfect seed when there has been no male plant 

 growing near them. Miller states that he tried the 

 experiment for several years, by removing all the male 

 plants before their blossoms opened, and although the 

 female plants continued stong and flourishing, yet they 

 never produced any good seed. Though both arising 

 from the same seed, the difference of which is undistin- 

 guishable, yet the male plant is ripe five or six weeks 

 sooner than the female. In both, the flowers are devoid 

 of corolla, or petals. Each grain of seed produces no 

 more than a single stem, which is occasionally called the 

 "reed," and sometimes the "boon." The useful fibre is 

 contained in the bark. "When the plant is full grown, 

 the difference in the aspect of the sexes is so great the 

 male being smaller, and more delicate than the female 

 as to be easily distinguished at a considerable distance. 

 This point too, demands attention in the after manage- 

 ment of the crop. 



Hemp, like many other plants in long and general 

 cultivation, is reputed to be a native of the East, to which 

 part of the globe we may trace it with more or less cer- 

 tainty. Linnaeus, in his Materia Medica, gives it to the 

 East Indies and Japan. Thunberg says it grows here 

 and there in Japan. G-melin thinks it may be a native 

 of Tarta-ry, since he found it there, though the Tartars do 



