ON HEMP. 



germ, produced along one of its sides, which makes it look a little 

 flatted. When you have taken up this pellicle, you find a white 

 kind of matter, consisting of two lobes joined together, which evi- 

 dently form a kind of head : these lobes are very distinct, and by 

 the germination are made to swell, open, and separate. Its germ, 

 which is roundish, bending back along the whole external length 

 of the grain^ under the seam which joins the two shells, terminates 

 in a point, and forms a kind of tendril which is the only part that 

 pierces the ground to form the root. The other end of the germ, 

 which lies cqncealed between the two lobes that inclose and preserve 

 it, appears like an exceeding fine and delicate sort of lance, which 

 is called the feather: from it issue the two leaves that appear first, 

 and we may imagine it to be the true principle of its germination 

 and life. These two lobes are also changed into two sorts of thick 

 green leaves (called by the botanists the seminal leaves) of an oval 

 form, but not indented, which serve for a rampart and preservative 

 to the springing leaves. The whole of this white matter seems to be 

 fat and spongeous, and its pores appear to be no less open than thos e 

 of snow : and it is, no doubt, owing to the situation of its germ, 

 and the softness of its whole substance, that Hemp-seed, beyond 

 any other sort of grain, has so great a disposition to ferment and 

 spring up, almost as soon as sown. 



The bark, as it appears upon the stalk, forms a green, knotty, 

 rough, or prickly covering to it. The knots of prickles are mere 

 excrescences of the gum, of which the whole bark is composed ; 



i 



d but 



