I 



ON HEMP. j 5 



nately from the grains of seed that grow on the same stalk, and the 

 difference cannot be known till they come to blossom. We know 

 not, when we sow Hemp, what quantity of either sex will be pro- 

 duced, nor which contributes most to the propagation of the plant. 

 They cannot, however, be easily distinguished till sixty days after 

 they are sown ; but, this observation, hitherto, does not appear to 

 have been of any consequence.* 



The fruit grows in a great number of bunches, at the end of 

 the stalks and branches which naturally produce^ them. This fruit 

 is terminated by a forked style when it is in embryo, and is wrapt 

 in a membrane, which secures it till it comes to maturity : then 

 the pistillum changes to a roundish grain, forces the membraneous 

 capsule, which contains it, to open ; and we then discover a round 

 smooth grain, somewhat flattened, and of a shining grey colour, 

 containing, under a thin shell, a tender, sweet, oily, white kernel, 



of 



* The time when the Hemp blossoms cannot be easily ascertained ; for it de- 

 pends on several circumstances. Sometimes it is not above a foot high. When 

 this is the case, the Hemp continues weak, and grows little or nothing at all higher. 

 This is sometimes occasioned by great heats, or other unfavourable accidents ; at 

 other times it arrives to the height of four or five feet before it blossoms, and grows 

 almost as much after. The Hemp which bears the flower commonly gets before 

 that which produces the seed, and rises about half a foot above that which bears 

 the grain. This superiority in the order of Nature may be well accounted for, 

 if it is true, that the powder which issues from the flower serves to convey fertility 

 to the grain on the stalks that bear the seed. 



