484 Mr. A. Christison on Cannabis indica. 



the drug have now been made. The expectations held out by him 

 have not been so fully realized as one would ba led to expect. This 

 can however be so far explained by a want of confidence or neglect 

 on the part of some who have employed the drug, and the use of 

 spurious or ill-prepared substances on the part of others. From the 

 marked success of various experimenters, it is obvious that the plant 

 does possess useful properties as a medicine : these will be pointed 

 out in a future part of the paper. 



In Dr. Lindley's ' Flora Medica,' Cannabis saliva is placed in the 

 natural order Urticacece, no allusion being made to the Cannabis in- 

 dica, as he obviously considers the two to be identical. It is thus 

 described : — Flowers dioecious, male flowers racemose ; calyx 5 -parted, 

 imbricated. Stamens 5. Anthers large and pendulous. Female 

 flowers in spikes. Bract acuminate, rolled round the ovary in room 

 of a calyx. Ovary roundish, with one pendulous ovule and two long 

 filiform glandular stigmas. Achaenium ovate, one-seeded, embryo 

 doubled up, with the radicle parallel with the plano-convex cotyle- 

 dons, and separated from them by a small quantity of albumen. 



He also states that it is an annual, 3 feet high, covered all over 

 with an extremely fine rough pubescence hardly visible to the naked 

 eye. The stem erect, branched, bright green, angular. The leaves 

 alternate or opposite on long weak petioles, digitate, scabrous, with 

 linear lanceolate sharply serrated leaves, tapering into a long smooth 

 entire point ; stipules subulate. Clusters of flowers axillary, with 

 subulate bracts ; the males lax and drooping, branched and leafless 

 at the base, the females erect, simple, and leafy at the base. Male 

 calyx downy ; female cal}^ covered with short brownish glands. 



Dr. Lindley now places this plant in the order Cannabinacece, 

 separating it from the Vrticacecie, the latter ha\ang small flat stipules, 

 limpid juice, a solid erect ovule, and a straight albuminous embryo ; 

 the former having a solitary suspended ovule and a hooked exalbu- 

 minous embryo. In the above description Dr. Royle agrees, who 

 has seen the plant in India. 



Two species of Cannabis have been described by botanists, viz. 

 C. saliva and C, indica : but repeated careful comparisons have failed 

 to discover any material drfference between them ; the generally 

 received opinion now being, that the same plant under the modifying 

 influence of climate and cultivation puts on a variety of characters. 

 This opinion has been fully borne out by the result of an experiment 

 in the Botanic Garden, which it may be interesting to detail. 



A few seeds picked from fresh Gunjah were sown on the 17th of 

 March 1849, as well as some seeds from decayed Gunjah : the latter 

 never germinated, but the others appeared above ground in a few 

 days ; in the course of a week they attained a height of 3 inches under 

 glass. Three shoots were planted in the open air, while the remainder 

 were kept in the hothouse. On August 1 st those without had attained 

 a height of 4| feet, and it was remarked that they had a peculiar 

 strong minlij odour. On the 1st October one of these was 9-^- feet 

 high, with several strong woody stems and abundant foliage : flower- 

 ing appeared to be commencing, but owing to advance of the season 



