174 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



obtained from plants cultivated in tropical India. The flowering 

 tops are made into more or less compressed masses, forming what is 

 known as " ganja " or " guaza." The best grade of ganja is obtained 

 from unfertilized plants grown in India and shipped via Calcutta and 

 Bengal. The leaves may be collected and dried separately and 

 constitute what is known as " bhang." The resin which sepa- 

 rates from ganja and bhang, or that which is collected from the 

 growing plant, constitutes the product known as " charas." The 

 article ordinarily imported into this country is grown on the farms 

 near Calcutta, the pistillate plants only being allowed to develop, 

 and these are pruned in such a way as to encourage the production 

 of flowering branches and an increase of resin. Fruiting spikes 

 with mature seeds should be removed. 



Description. Usually in compressed masses 5 to 14 cm. long. 

 Stem cylindrical, about 3 mm. in diameter, longitudinally furrowed 

 and wrinkled, light green, pubescent, internodes 2 to 20 mm. long. 

 Leaf digitately compound, with three to seven linear-lanceolate, 

 nearly sessile leaflets, summit of leaflets acuminate, base acute or 

 cuneate, margin deeply serrate; upper and under surfaces dark green, 

 pubescent, glandular, veins of the first order diverging at an angle 

 of 65 and terminating in the teeth; petiole 1 to 5 cm. long. Inflor- 

 escence in sessile spikes, each flower subtended by an ovate, pubes- 

 cent bract; calyx entire, ovate or oblong-acuminate, about 4 mm. 

 long, dark green, pubsecent, split longitudinally on one side, some- 

 what enlarged at the base and folded around the ovary; styles two, 

 about 8 mm. long, filiform, pubescent, ovary oblong, about 1 mm. 

 long, with a single campylotropous ovule. Odor distinct. Taste 

 slightly acrid. 



Inner Structure. Both the upper and the lower surfaces of the 

 leaves possess numerous, more or less bent, 1-celled non-glandular 

 hairs which contain a spheroidal cystolith. Glandular hairs are 

 also present on the leaves, and these possess usually a 1-celled stalk 

 and a 2- to 16-celled glandular summit or head. Calcium oxalate 

 occurs in the form of small rosette aggregates. 



Powder. (Fig. 74.) Dark green; non-glandular hairs, 1-celled, 

 more or less curved, with numerous slight projections, and some- 

 times with cystoliths of calcium carbonate; glandular hairs two 

 kinds either with short unicellular or multicellular stalks and 

 8- to 16-celled glandular heads; calcium oxalate, in rosette aggre- 

 gates from 0.005 to 0.025 mm. in diameter; numerous oil globules 

 and resin fragments; few nearly spheroidal pollen grains 0.025 to 

 0.035 mm. in diameter, with numerous centrifugal projections, 



