ON HEMP. 



S3 



blacker, more rough, and about a foot and a half in length ; the 

 leaves are like those of Hemp raised by cultivation, but more rough, 

 and likewise blacker.* 



The root of Hemp produced by cultivation is six inches long, 

 or thereabouts, of a whitish colour, ligneous, undivided, and run- 

 ning to a point, having fibres only on two lines, diametrically op- 

 posite to one another, when it is not straitened for want of room, 

 and thick in proportion to the stalk it bears. The stalk is round from 

 the root to the first ramification ; it then assumes a quadrangular 

 form, and is fluted, hollow, ligneous, covered with a greenish bark, 

 composed of filaments, hairy, and rough to the touch. At proper 

 distances, this bark is secured from place to place by six small fas- 

 tenings, which keep it close to the stem, like so many little nails 

 regularly ranged on the circumference of the same circle, and al- 

 most equally distant from one another. Its length and thickness are 

 various, according to the difference of the soil, of the method of 

 cultivation, of the climate, and of the seasons. Some of it rises to 

 the height of eight or ten feet, and the stalks look like so many 

 little trees : others seem to pine away on the ground, and scarce get 

 to the height of two or three feet ; sometimes less. A grain of 

 Hemp-seed, sown by itself in a soil that agrees with it, commonly 

 produces a stalk very large f and firm, with many branches, and 



looks 



* Nigriore folio, et asperiore. Plin. lib. xx, cap. 23. 

 t Of such stalks they make a kind of charcoal, fit to enter into the compo~ 

 sition of gunpowder. 



