16 



ON HEMP. 



of a strong smell, that intoxicates when it is fresh. This kernel is 

 covered with a green pellicle, terminating in a point on the side 

 next the germ, which is very singularly situated. 



This grain, which is called Hemp-seed, is no less useful for its 

 peculiar qualities, than for those which it has in common with the 

 whole plant Its substance, considered as a seed, is soft, fat, oily, 

 and gummy ; it ferments, conceives heat, and springs up with 

 equal facility. Its pores being large, tender, and flexible, receive 

 greedily the impressions of heat and humidity, which transmit to 

 them the nutritious juices supplied by a fat, light, and well-labour- 

 ed soil. Its fibres, after a quick germination, unfold themselves, 

 grow up, and attain strength ; and the gum being the principle of 

 their union, supports and preserves them. Besides the use of its oil 

 in physic, it is also employed with great advantage in the lamp, and 

 in coarse painting. They give a paste made of it to hogs and horses 

 to fatten them : it enters into the composition of black soap, the use 

 of which is very common in the manufactures of stuffs and felts j 

 and it is also used for tanning nets. 



A grain of Hemp-seed, seen by the help of a microscope, pre- 

 sents at first a greyish epidermis full of veins, the compartments 

 whereof appear like a sort of scales. Under this first cover you see 

 a brown olive-coloured bark, extremely smooth on the inside, formed 

 of two shells, which separate exactly in the middle, like those of a 

 nut : the seam that joins them being quite imperceptible. Under 

 a green cover, its kernel,, in the form of a little orange, bears its 



germ,,. 



