MALABAR AND BROWN HEMP OF THI WES? OF INDIA. 283 
inferior to the best Russian Hemp (‘ Fl. Ind.,’ iii, p. 263) ; 
which he conceives is due to the mode of preparation, which 
we shall immediately notice. But something must also be 
owing to climate. 
So long ago as the year 1802, some fibre was imported 
by Capt. Isaacke, of the Skelton Castle, which was at first con- 
sidered to be the real Hemp, and called Malabar Hemp. 
Capt. Eastwick, one of the Directors of the East India 
Company has informed the Author that Major J. D. Watson, 
also paid great attention at this period to Malabar Hemp. Dr. 
H. Scott writes of it, that he does not know whether it be the 
same plant as the Sunn of Bengal, but where very great 
strength is necessary, the substance obtained from it is preferred’ 
to the Bengal Sunn, and is very superior to anything of the 
kind he has seen in the Guzerat. This, he thinks, may 
depend more on the steeping of the plant and the preparation, 
than on any difference in the vegetables that produce it; and 
this opinion was proved to be correct, for Dr. Roxburgh, 
having obtained some of the seed, found it to be Crotalaria 
juncea. 
It was about the time that Dr. Roxburgh was employed in 
the culture of fibres in Bengal, he learnt that in the island of 
Salsette, where the best Sunn is said to be prepared, little 
or no maceration is employed; that the plant while moist is 
peeled by the hand, and immediately dried, in the open air 
or under cover, according to the state of the weather. By 
peeling, the fibres are better kept in their natural state of 
arrangement, and give support and strength to each other ; 
whereas, by the process of the Bengalese, they get so materially 
entangled, that a great loss is always sustained. If they are 
restored to their natural situation by the heckle, there is a 
loss of nearly one half of the original quantity, which renders 
the heckled Sunn of Bengal of a high price. 
Dr. Roxburgh further says, in ‘Fl. Ind.’ p. 283: “ Nume- 
rous experiments made by me induce a belief that the supe- 
riority of the Hemp depends upon the peeling ; but it is probable 
that the climate of the West of India may be more favorable 
than that of Bengal for the production of a stronger fibre. For 
no great attention seems to be paid to the culture, according to 
recent accounts.” 
