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. Eoyle suggests that the V7}irev6rj<^ (IN^epenthes), 

 ^^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 hemj:) appears to be derived 

 from Jiennijo, 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 

 Eussia 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 



