120 HEMP. 



along the hedges ; it both protects them from being 

 browsed by cattle, and also supplies an abundant har\ 7 est 

 of excellent seed. In. the departments of Indre-et-Loire 

 and Maine-et-Loire, in Eranee, a very superior variety 

 called Brehemont is cultivated, which is most probably a 

 native of Piedmont, by which name it is also known. 

 This sort often attains the height of from twelve to 

 fifteen feet; but from nine to ten feet is nevertheless the 

 ordinary height to which it rises on the rich soil of the 

 valley of the Loire. 



The root of the hemp plant is fusiform, or spindle- 

 shaped, with but few fibres, white and woody. Although 

 it usually grows six feet high, on an average, on good 

 land, abounding in humus, or vegetable mould, or on 

 spots which are freshly broken up, it is seldom taller than 

 three or four feet on moderate soils. Its stem is quad- 

 rangular, hollow, covered with short hairs, harsh to the 

 touch, and often branched. The lower leaves are opposite, 

 the rest alternate ; all grow on foot-stalks. Hemp, we 

 have seen, differs from many of our cultivated plants in 

 bearing the male and female flowers on separate indi- 

 viduals, as is the case with the date-tree, and the large 

 genus of willows. The leaves are composed of five 

 leaflets, the three middle ones toothed and lance-shaped, 

 the two outer ones more entire and much smaller ; all of 

 these are rough and of a deep dark green. "When hemp- 

 plants are isolated, they divide into a great number of 

 branches ; but they rise with only a single stem to the 

 top, when they are thickly sewn. The latter method is 

 much more advantageous to improve the quality of 

 the fibre. 



In the language of modern botanists, the seed-bearing 

 plants would be regarded as the female individuals, while 

 the barren, or rather the merely pollen-bearing and fruc- 

 tifying ones, would be properly considered and called the 

 males, But the female plant grows much taller and more 

 robust than the male, and also remain longer on the 

 ground before arriving at maturity. On this account 

 probably the old writers, while they recognised the dis- 



