41 8 I^ORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 



much used in native cookery.— Kew Museum. The 

 Technologist, May i, 1864, p. 475. 

 Distribution : Upper Guinea. 



Urticace^. 



Maconia of Congo, De'lamba, Hemp, &c. {Cannabis 

 sativa, L.). — Annual from three to ten feet high, 

 cultivated in various parts of the world for its in- 

 valuable fibre. It is found, however, that the Hemp 

 plant grown in tropical countries produces less 

 valuable fibres than the plant of colder latitudes, but 

 that the former is far more active as an intoxicating, 

 and medicinal agent from secreting a much larger 

 quantity of the narcotic resin. In the East various 

 forms and preparations of this plant are enormously 

 used for smoking, with or without tobacco, or by 

 swallowing them in combination with other substances, 

 or by infusion in water, &c. Gunjah, Bhang, and 

 Churrus are the principal forms of hemp found in 

 India. In Arabia it is largely employed for similar 

 purposes under the name of Hashish or Hashash. 

 Delamba, or Tobacco of Congo, is said to grow wild 

 in the marshy districts of the Congo or Zaire. The 

 flowers when dried are used for smoking, and soon 

 produce a narcotic effect. The plant is well known 

 to the Portuguese inhabitants of the African Coasts, 

 who use it partly as an article of luxury and partly 

 as a medicine. Hemp-seed is used for feeding birds, 



