CEOTALARIA JUNCEA, Unn. 



[Vide Plate XXL] 



English, false hemp, san hemp, tag hemp; Vernaculae, san, sani, sanai, phiilsan, arjha san, 



Natui-al order Leguniinos(e, sub-order Papilio7iacece, tribe Genistece. A tall stiff shrub with 

 slender virgate stems, 4-8 ft. high. Branches terete, striate, silky. Leaves shortly stalked, dis- 

 tant, linear lanceolate, 1^-3 in., entire, obtuse, clothed with shining reddish brown silky hairs, 

 stipules (when present) small, subulate. Flowers numerous, in long loose terminal racemes ; bracts 

 small, linear or ovate acuminate. Calyx deeply toothed, densely clothed with rust-coloured 

 pubescence ; teeth linear lanceolate. Corolla bright yellow ; keel closed, slightly twisted. Stamens 

 diadelphous, unequal; anthers of the shorter stamens linear, of the longer ovate. Pod 1-1^ in., 

 clothed with persistent velvety pubescence. Seeds numerous, kidney-shaped. 



The sa7iai is closely connected with the broom, to which both in flowers and foliage 

 it bears considerable resemblance. Fibre is actually extracted from a species of broom 

 {Spartium junceuni) found wild in the south of Europe. The generic name of the sanai 

 {Crotalaria) is derived from the rattling noise made by the loose seeds within the ripe pods 

 when the latter are shaken. 



It is unfortunate that this and the plant next noticed (^Hibiscus cannabinus) should 

 have borne amongst Europeans the name of hemp, and have thus been subject to ever- 

 recurring confusion with the true hemp plant. Cannabis saiiva. The similarity, and 

 indeed in some cases identity of the vernacular names of this and the Hibiscus hemp 

 {patsan) has also contributed to the error and uncertainty which occur in the writings 

 of most unscientific enquirers into the fibre products of Upper India. There is indeed 

 no affinity whatever between the three plants. Hemp is a species of nettle with much 

 divided hand-shaped leaves ; sanai-hemp is a leguminous plant with prominent yellow 

 flowers, hardly prima facie recognizable from arhar {dal), except in having undivided 

 instead of divided leaves, whilst patsan belongs to the same order as the cotton, which 

 it greatly resembles both in flower and shape of leaf. In the following notes patsan 

 will be the name used to denote the latter, whilst the plant which this notice concerns 

 will be styled as sanai, the commonest of its vernacular names. 



Sanai does not form one of the heads in the annual crop returns, so that no data 

 are possessed for the calculation of the average area under it in diff'erent parts of the 

 Provinces. From special returns collected in 1880-81, it appears that the area under 

 sanai grown as a sole crop in the 30 temporarily settled N.-W. Provinces Districts is 

 between 38,000 and 40,000 acres, being '16 per cent, on the total cropped area, and '3 

 per cent, on the area under kharif crops. The divisions in which its cultivation is most 

 popular are Rohilkhand (10,000 acres), Allahabad (10,000 acres), and Agra (8,000 

 acres). In the Meerut Division it occupies less than 3,000 acres, partly it is said 

 because the rival fibre, patsan, is grown in this division to a larger extent than in the 

 Middle and Lower Doab. 



* References.— Hook. ri. Ind. ii. 79 ; Roxb. Fl. Ind. 259 ; Powell Pnnj. Prod. 507 ; Drnry Useful PI. of Ind. 163. 



