118 HEMP. 



not cultivate it. In the species Planfarum it is said to 

 grow wild in India ; but in Eichard's edition of the 

 Systema it is assigned to Persia. Pliny and Dioscorides 

 speak of it as a native of Europe. However that may 

 have been originally, hemp has been grown in Europe 

 from time immemorial, for the sake both of the cordage 

 manufactured from its fibre and of the oil which is 

 expressed from its seeds. 



All cultivated hemp belongs to a single species ; but 

 there exists a number of so-called varieties, which, far 

 from being permanent, are merely the temporary 

 developments of soil, climate, manure, and treatment. 

 Eope-heinp, namely such as naturally displays a tall, 

 robust, and branching stem, furnished with dense and 

 tenacious fibres, capable, in short, of making a vigorous 

 growth, and bearing a heavy crop of seed, is the type of 

 one of the most decided varieties of the species ; cloth- 

 hemp, whose stem is slenderer, more drawn up, less 

 branched, and containing a finer fibre, may be taken as a 

 general representative of the other. In Italy, Piedmont 

 is celebrated for the first sort; the neighbourhood of 

 Genoa for the second. The hemp of the Ukraine is in 

 high repute, and, till the breaking out of the present war, 

 has furnished Eussia with a considerable article for 

 exportation. English hemp, properly manufactured, 

 stands unrivalled in its strength and beauty, and is 

 superior, in both these respects, to the Eussian. Con- 

 siderable quantities of cloth used to be imported from 

 that country for sheeting, merely on account of its 

 strength, for it is coarser in the piece than other linen. 

 Our own hempen cloth, however, is preferable, being 

 stronger, from the superior quality of the thread, and, at 

 the same time, becoming lighter in washing. The same 

 may be said both of French and Belgian hempen cloth. 

 The hemp raised in England is not of so dry and spongy 

 a nature as what we have from Eussia, and therefore 

 requires a smaller proportion of tar to manufacture it 

 into cordage ; tar being cheaper than hemp, it is said 

 that some rope-makers prefer foreign hemp to ours, 



