CORDAGE OF JUBBULPORE HEMP. 291 
In the Botanic Garden (Calcutta) it is perennial, growing to the height 
of nine feet, with numerous, slender, furrowed, straight branches, which are 
again more ramous at the top. During the cool season, each twig ends in a 
long raceme of large, yellow flowers, and the seed ripens in two months. 
In the ‘ Proceedings of the Agri-Horticultural Society’ for 
April, 1851, we find Captain Thompson presenting some dressed 
samples of the fibre from Jubbulpore, and a piece of rope made 
of it, part of the rigging made for some ships that were dis- 
mantled in the Bay of Bengal the year before, and which has 
proved equal to any Europe-made rope. 
A good account of this fibre and its uses having appeared in 
the ‘Journ. of the Agri-Hortic. Society,’ and referring to the 
plant producing it, we here subjoin extracts from the paper. 
At a meeting of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India, held 
on the 12th June, 1852, Messrs. Harton and Co. submitted specimens of the 
Jubbulpore Hemp fibre in a raw state ; as also of fishing lines and tarred 
rigging made from it. A quantity of this raw material, procured from 
Jubbulpore by Messrs. Harton and Co. and the late Capt. Thompson 
about three years ago, was considered so well adapted for cordage purposes, 
owing to its excellent quality and great strength, that they have been willing 
to pay a high price for it, to meet the heavy cost entailed by the transport of 
so bulky an article from Jubbulpore to Calcutta. In consequence of an 
impression on their part, that the fibre in question was the produce of Can- 
nabis sativa—it being so similar in many respects to Russian Hemp—the 
subject was deemed by the Society deserving of further inquiry. 
An application was accordingly made to Mr. Williams, Superintendent of 
the School of Industry at Jubbulpore, for a small quantity of seed, which 
was sown immediately on its receipt on the 23d of June, 1852, in, the 
Society’s garden. In the course of nine weeks the seedlings had attained 
the height of 83 feet, without branching—an important point in a fibrous- 
yielding plant—and commenced flowering in three months from the date 
of sowing. 
Dr. Faloones to whom a specimen was referred, has pronounced it to be 
Crotalaria tenuifolia of Roxburgh, which Wight and Arnott, and some other 
botanists, regard as merely w variety of C. juncea, the plant affording the 
well-known “Sunn Hemp” of commerce. But their opinion, it may be 
observed, is founded on dried specimens. The habit differs very much from 
that of C. juncea. : 
Messrs. W. H. Harton and Co. have been kind enough to furnish the 
following memorandum regarding the above fibre: . 
“This material has been tested several times in the Government Service, 
both Military and Marine, and some ropes have been found equal to the 
staple cordage of Europe. A coil of bolt rope, manufactured by us from 
Jubbulpore Hemp, tested last year in the Marine Department, broke with a 
‘strain of 57 cwt.° A coil of the same size, taken from one of H.M.’s vessels, 
was tested shortly after, and broke with a strain of 59cwt. It may be 
observed, that the Hemp used in the Naval yards of the British Government, 
is all selected from the fleet of hemp-laden vessels, before any is permitted 
to be delivered to private parties. This Jubbulpore Hemp can no doubt be 
considerably improved, were the preparing process in the hands of Europeans, 
