i8"6/} Boyle's Botany, §c. of the Himalayas and Cashmere. 42£ 



India. I have »«een it as high as Bundlecund and the southern parts of 

 the Doab, though it requires a rich moist soil, and shady situation. 

 These are obtained in. Northern India by irrigation, and covering the 

 plants around and above with a light thalch of grass or reeds. P. Ion- 

 gum, pippul of the natives, and the root pippula-moola and peepla- 

 moor, is cultivated in Bengal and the Circars, both for its pepper and 

 its roots : the former in use as a condiment, and the latter extensively 

 so as a stimulant medicine. P. chaba (As. Res. ix. 391) is called. 

 mugpeepul, and similarly used. The root of P. melhysticum is that 

 employed in the Society and Friendly Islands, under the name of Ava 

 or Kava,Ao produce by fermentation a pungent and stimulant beverage. 

 P. inebrians is substituted for it. P. anisdtum, as its name implies, 

 smells of Anise ; other species possess the general pungent and stimu- 

 lant properties of the family. P. Cubeba, grown in Java and Penang* 

 affords the well known Cubebs, which are the kubabeh of the Arabs, 

 kubab-cheenee of the Hindoos ; for these kurfiyoon is assigned as the 

 Greek name, intended probably for Carpe&ium, as this has been sup- 

 posed by some authors to be cubebs. The seeds of tezbu/, Xanthoocy r 

 him hostile, p. 157, are said to be one kind of cubebs. They have much 

 the same warm, pungent, and stimulant properties." Page 332. to 333. 



i{ The hemp {Cannabis sativa), so well known in Asia from affording 

 an intoxicating drug, and in Europe the strongest fibre for rope-mak- 

 ing, is cultivated for the former product in small quantities everywhere 

 in the plains of India, near villages : but in the Himalayas it is exr 

 tremely abundant, at elevations of 6,000 and 7,000 feet, and of very- 

 luxuriant growth, rising sometimes to a height of ten and twelve feet. 

 Here, though it likewise affords an intoxicating drug, it is also known 

 for the tenacity of its fibre, which is employed by the mountaineers 

 in Gurhwal and Sirmore for making a coarse sackcloth, and strong 

 ropes for crossing their rivers. Considering that this fact was early- 

 made known by Col. Kirkpatrick in his account of Nepal, ascertained 

 by Gen. Hardwicke in his journey to Srinuggur, and repeated by Br. 

 Roxburgh in his account of experiments on substitutes for hemp ; it 

 is remarkable that no one should yet have attempted to obtain it for 

 commercial purposes, particularly as during the late war so many at- 

 tempts were made to find an efficient substitute for this important 

 plant; and so many others are cultivated in India for the product which 

 this yields of so superior a quality. It may be mentioned, that I have 

 seen it abundant in the Deyra Boon and plains of Northern India, es- 

 pecially in the upper part of the Doab Canal ; of these only a small 

 portion is employed for making bhang ; but this might probably be 

 obtained from the leaves, even while the stems yielded the fibre. 



" The hemp is supposed by some to be a native of India j it no doubt 



