546 CANNABINEiE. 



With regard to the results of researches on other edible fruits, made 

 about the same time in the laboratory of Fresenius, it would appear 

 that the mulberry is one of the most saccharine, being only surpassed 

 by the cherry (10'79 of sugar) and grape (10"6 to 19"0).^ It is richer 

 in sugar than the following, namely : — 



Raspberries, yielding 4 per cent, of sugar and 1'48 of (malic) acid. 

 Strawberries „ 5'7 „ „ 1*31 „ „ 



Whortleberries „ o"8 „ „ 1*34 „ „ 



Currants ,, 6*1 „ „ 204 „ „ 



The amount of free acid in the mulberry is not small, nor is it exces- 

 sive. The small proportion of insoluble matters is worthy of notice in 

 comparison, for instance with the whortleberry, which contains no less 

 thau 13 per cent. The colouring matter of the mulberry has not 

 been examined. The acid is probably not simply malic, but in part 

 tartaric. 



Uses — The sole use in medicine of mulberries is for the preparation 

 of a syrup employed to flavour or colour any other medicines. In 

 Greece, the fruit is submitted to fermentation, thereby furnishing an 

 inebriatincf beveraere. 



CANNABINE^. 

 HERBA CANNABIS. 



Cannabis Indica ; Indian Hem,]); F. Ghanvre Indien ; G. Hanfkraut. 



Botanical Origin — Cannabis saliva L., Common Hemp, an annual 

 dioecious plant, native of Western and Central Asia, cultivated in tem- 

 perate as well as in tropical countries. 



It grows wild luxuriantly on the banks of the lower Ural and Volga 

 near the Caspian Sea, extending thence to Persia, the Altai range, and 

 Northern and Western China. It is found in Kashmir and on the 

 Himalaya, growing 10 to 12 feet high, and thriving vigorously at an 

 elevation of GOOO to 10,000 feet. It likewise occurs in Tropical Africa, 

 on the eastern and western coasts as well as in the central tracts 

 watered by the Congo and Zambesi, but whether truly indigenous is 

 doubtful. It has been naturalized in Brazil, north of Rio de Janeiro, 

 the seeds having been brought thither by the negroes from Western 

 Africa. The cultivation of hemp is carried on in many parts of conti- 

 nental Europe, but especially in Central and Southern Russia. 



The hemp plant grown in India exhibits certain differences as con- 

 trasted with that cultivated in Europe, which were noticed by Rum- 

 phius in the 17th century, and which (about a.d. 1790), induced Lamarck 

 to claim for the former plant the rank of a distinct species, under the 

 name of Cannabis indica. But the variations observed in the two 

 plants are of so little botanical importance and are so inconstant, that 

 the maintenance of C. indica as distinct from C. sativa has been 

 abandoned by general consent. 



* The fig excepted, which is much more saccharine than any. 



