208 On the fibrous plants yielding the Grass-cloth of China. 
“from which “ grass-cloth” is manufactured, embrace more than 
“ean be satisfactorily answered at the present time. The subjoin- 
ed account, though meagre, and in several ae incomplete, 
will be found to contain much of the infor t 
is cultivated in this vicinity, but as it is rs an inferior quality, 
and does not flower until autumn, my description is less complete 
than if written a a more favored locality, or at a more advanced 
season of the yea 
Description oat History.—Grass-cloth is manufactured from 
the fibres of a plant, sailed by the Chinese Ma ; it is a generic 
+... term, under which several varieties, if not species, are included, 
- % amongst these the Tung Ma, Pi Ma, Sing Ma, Tien Ma, and 
ae others are used only as therapeutic agents. “Cloth is manufactur- 
“s. ed from the Chi Ma, Ta Ma, Kin Ma, Luh Ma, Sec. _ There 
‘ F ; e 
: * have likewise a place in the pharmacopeeia of China. In imita- 
- tion of the native botanists from whose works this account has 
been mainly derived, I shall principally limit my remarks to a de- 
co scription of the Chis Ma, which belongs to the natural order of 
*i°-* Orticee—it is a Cannabis or hemp, but differing from oo 
“sativa, sufficiently to. oe another designation. Perhaps 
*~ til it becomes better known, it may be called Cannabis sensi 
/ . It has an irregular cellular ‘ado of a:yellowish white color, which 
: ‘, “+ ‘sends up annually ten to fifteen, or more stems, to the height of 
from, 7 to 10 feet. The stems are upright, slightly fluted, pilous, 
and herbaceous: its leaves are on. long petioles, alternate, ovate, 
i. Bee dish, serrate, simple; the upper surface pilous and dark green, 
7 Romar of a silvery-grey. ‘The flowers are described as minute, 
* » numerous, -of a i Sa green color, on a catkin-like receptacle or 
. “spike. «It is feund at the base’of hills and on dry soils, from Co- 
T. © chin China to e Yellow ‘iver, and from raters to the —- 
; y 
ur Sy, Chuen, Kongnain, Chikiang, Fuchkien, and Can- 
. 5% peeneotan! Native .w riters do not include the’ latter prov- — 
~. mee assits sey It as kis ions thes there is no no- 
M tice of the J ai y 
mpl them 3 \d. years 
ia . tis meriti ned in the, S he hb, Ki ngias = 4 of- nit 
4 1e central 1 the 
ss it came inet nse “in, fa A faremgrey aces Le “The 
ee Then Herbal says, “its origin is’ bidhs we, 
Be ‘Medical properties. —The rect issdeseribed by writers on ma- 
_. teria medicg-as innocuous, sweet to the’ taste, of a cold natures 
d of cathartic i¢ properties, poet: geee. gad lea oS 
