BOTANICAL CHARACTERS OF. 329 



male and others female. The flowers of the male plants 

 are arranged in loose panicles, and consist of five small 

 sepals, including as many stamens. In iliQ female plants 

 the small green flowers are scarcely distinguishable from 

 the tufts of leaves amidst which they grow. Each flower 

 consists of a narrow scale rolled round a minute ovary, 

 terminated by a couple of glittering thread-like stigmas. 

 When properly impregnated and matured, this ovary be- 

 comes the well-known grain or seed-vessel called hemp- 

 seed, a favourite food of poultry and small birds. The 

 seed itself inclosed with the grain contains a large per- 

 centage of a fixed oil, soft and tasteless in itself, which, 

 when expressed, is used for lubricating purposes, or for 

 mixture with other oils the residuum forming an oil- 

 cake, largely used in some districts for cattle-feeding, and 

 generally quoted in the market-lists at about the same 

 price as the other second-class cakes. 



The soils best suited for hemp are those containing 

 large proportions of organic matter, especially if they lie 

 low and are inclined to moisture. The deep, rich, alluvial 

 soils of our marsh lands would probably be better adapted 

 for hemp-growing than for the cultivation of any other of 

 our seed-bearing crops. Loams even of the strongest 

 class, provided organic manner be present naturally, or 

 supplied plentifully in the shape cf well- rotted dung, will 

 carry good crops. Old pasture lands, when broken up, 

 give a produce satisfactory both in quantity and quality 

 to the grower; and even peat lands, bogs, and morasses, 

 if the surplus water be carried off by intersecting drains, 

 may be generally cultivated successfully with hemp, pro- 

 vided the climate of the district be suitable to it. In all 

 soils which are too rich for flax, (5r on which the cereals 

 would be likely to run too much to straw, and be weak 

 and liable to be laid, hemp may be sown with propriety ; 

 but upon the drier class of soils as gravels, sands, the thin 



