88 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



Canna Achiras, Gillies. 



Mendoza. One of the few extra-tropic C annas, eligible for arrow- 

 root culture. 



Canna coccinea, Koscoe. 



West-Indies. Yields, with some other Caiinas, the particular 

 arrowroot called Tous Les Mois. 



Canna edulis, Edwards.* 



The Adeira of Peru. One of the hardiest of arrowroot-plants. 

 Seeds will germinate even when many years old. Plants, supplied 

 at the Botanic Garden of Melbourne, have yielded excellent starch 

 at Melbourne, Western Port, Lake Wellington, Ballarat and other 

 localities in the colony of Victoria. The Rev. Mr. Hagenauer, of 

 the Gippsland Aboriginal Mission-station, obtained over one ton 

 from an acre ; the Rev. Mr. Bulmer found this root to yield 28 per 

 cent, of starch. The gathering of the roots is effected there about 

 April. The plants can be set out in ordinary ploughed land. 

 Starch grains remarkably large. This Canna resembles a banana 

 in miniature, hence it is eligible for scenic plantations ; the local 

 production in Gippsland is already large enough to admit of exten- 

 sive sale. Readily flowering only in hot climes. 



Canna tiaccida. Koscoe. 



Carolina. Probably also available for arrowroot, though in the 

 first instance, like many congeners, chosen only for ornamental 

 culture. 



Canna glauca, Linne. 



One of the West-Indian Arrowroot-Cannas. 



Cannabis satlva, 0. Bauhin.* 



The Hemp -plant, seemingly indigenous co various parts of Asia 

 as far west as Turkey and as far east as Japan, recorded recently 

 by Dr. A. v. Regel as naturally also wild in Turkestan; A. de 

 Candolle gives Dahuria and Siberia as the native country. Long 

 cultivated for its fibre. It exudes the churras or hasheesh, a 

 medicinal resinous substance of narcotic properties, particularly in 

 hot climates. Spoken of by Herodotus already as highly stimu- 

 lating and as indigenous in Scythia. Gets to 18 feet high [Fraas]. 

 According to Dr. G. Watt two similar resinous substances are 

 obtained from the Hemp -pi ant in India, known as ganza and 

 churras, both are smoked; bhang consists of the mature leaves, 

 used in the preparation of the intoxicating beverage called hashish. 

 The foliage also contains a volatile oil, while the seeds yield by 

 pressure the well-known fixed hemp -oil, for which they are exten- 

 sively produced, particularly in Russia. Usually the plant is pulled 

 for obtaining fibre in its best state immediately after flowering ; 

 the seeding plant is gathered for fibre at a later stage of growth. 



