152 POPULAR ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



Pliny, that they commonly made ropes and cordage of it. 

 In his ' Illustrations of the Botany of the Himalaya Moun- 

 tains/ Dr. Royle suggests that the vrjirevOrjs (Nepenthes), 

 "assuager of grief/' of Homer, was the hemp-plant, the 

 narcotic power of which was known to the Scythians, for 

 Herodotus also states that they excited themselves to " shouts 

 of exultation " by inhaling its vapour. In reference to this 

 property, it is also known in India as the " increaser of plea- 

 sure," the "exciter of desire," the "cementer of friend- 

 ship," the "causer of the reeling gait," the "laughter- 

 mover," etc. Our English word hemp appears to be derived 

 from kennip, a name applied in India to one of the nume- 

 rous substitutes for hemp. 



The native country of the hemp is not known, but most 

 probably it is some part of India. Like the flax, it has a 

 most extraordinary power of adapting itself to climate, its 

 range of cultivation extending from the northern parts of 

 Russia to the tropical plains of India ; it thrives admirably 

 in Europe and North America and also throughout the 

 whole of Africa. One remarkable characteristic of the 

 hemp-plant when growing in tropical countries is that the 

 value of the fibre is much diminished, but another quality 

 is developed — it becomes powerfully narcotic, and exudes 



