RECENT DISCOVERIES. 
667 
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; it no doubt is so of some part 
of Asia, It appears to be wild in the 
Himalayas. The Arabic name Idnnuk is 
thought to have been corrupted into the Dutch 
hennep, whence we no doubt have owhemp; 
kinnabis is given as its Greek name by tlie 
eastern writers on Materia Medica ; hunj as 
Peisian and and bhang as Hindee. It is 
said by Herodotus to liavebeen made into clotli 
by llie Thracians, and is now well known to be 
extensively cultivated in Italy, Poland, and 
Russia to the sou'h of Moscow, with a small 
quantity only in England. It lequiresa rich 
soil and moist situation ; is pulled when in 
flower, if the fibre alone be required, but if 
the seed also, then the male plants are pulled 
as soon as they have shed tiieir pollen, and 
the others when the seed is ripe. These yield 
oil, which is employed by painters, or they 
are used for feeding poultry, so that every 
part of the plant is turned to some account. 
The leaves are sometimes smoked in India, 
and occasionally added to tobacco, but are 
chiefly employed for making bhang, and subzee, 
of wliicli the intoxicating powers are so well 
known. But a peculiar substance is yielded 
by the plants in the hills in the form of a 
glandular secretion, which is collected by the 
natives pressing the upper part of the growing 
plant between the palms of their liands, and 
then scraping off the secretion which adheres. 
'J'his is well known in India by the name 
cherris, and is consideicd more intoxicating 
than any other preparation of this plant, 
which is so highly esteemed by many Asiatics, 
serving them both for wine and opium ; it has 
in consequence a variety of names applied to 
it in Arabic, some of which weie tianslated to 
me, os ‘ grass of fuqeers,’ — leaf of delusion,’ 
— ‘increaserof pleasure,’ — ‘ exciter of desire,’ 
— ‘ cementer of friendship,’ &c. Linneuswas 
well acquainted with its ‘ vis narcotica, phan- 
taslica, dementens.’ It is as likely as any 
other to have been ilie Nepenthes of Homer. 
Besides kinnabis, it has dejroonus assigned as a 
Greek name. 
“ It is inteiesting- to find in the same family 
with the hemp, the Urtica tenacissima of 
Calooee ofMarsden, of the Malays, a 
native of Sumatra, also of Rungpore, where 
at is called kunkomis, and which Dr. Rox- 
burgh found one of the strongest of all the 
vegetable fibies, which he subjected to ex[)e- 
riment. Average weight with which lines 
made of the dift’erent substances broke, 
were, Asclepias tenacissima, Jetee ol the 
Raimahl mountaineers, 248 ; TJrtici ten<i- 
cissima, Calooee, 240 ; the strongest Sunn, 
Crotol'iri^'' juncea, l60. Hemp, Canna bis sativ r, 
grown in the year l80O. in the Company’s 
Elemp Farm near Calcutta, 158, but 
much stronger when tanned. Europe hemp, 
however, was always found stronger than 
Sunn, though not more so than the others. 
Dr. Roxburgh speaks of the beauty, fineness, 
and softness of the fibre of this plant, and says, 
he learnt from a friend resident ai Canton, 
that grass-cloth of China is made of this 
material. It is cultivated in Sumatra for the 
fibres of its bark. The Malays use it for 
sewing-thread and twine, and for making fish- 
ing-nets. It is as readily cultivate*! as the 
willow from cuttings, grows luxuiiintly in 
the northern, a.i in the southern parts of India, 
throws up numerous shoots, as soon as they 
arecutdown, which may be done about five 
limes a-year. 13r. Roxburgh, however, 
found some difliculiy in cleaning the fibres of 
this plant, nolvviilistanding his anxious de- 
sire to succeed will) this substitute for both 
hemp and flax. Urtica heterophylla is another 
Indian nettle, which succeeds well in every 
pait, and of which the bark abounds in fine 
white, glossy, silk-like strong fibres, (Roxb.) 
'Hie stinging propevties of the nettle are well 
known, but they are all exceeded by the Isi: 
mentioned plant, as well as by U. crenulata 
and stimnlnns. 
“ 'I’be Mop (Hamulus Liipulas) is another 
plant of this family, which aflbrds fibre fit 
for rope and cloth-making, and which vvould 
be a valuable acquisition to India, as many 
situations at moderate elevationsare admira- 
bly fitted for the brewing of beer. In one 
establishment which 1 visited several times, 
the temperature within tlie buildings never 
varied much from 60°. The hop is also a 
remarkable instance of the change of preju- 
dice with regaid to the same thing. Thus, 
atan early peiiod, in the petition against it, 
we hear of it as the ‘ w'icked weed called 
hops in a subsequent age we find it noted as 
a subject of admiration, that ‘ on Kent’s rich, 
plains green liop-giounds scent the gales, 
and now, many ilii’.ik, that no beer can be 
made without it. The plant grows wild in 
most parts of Europe, and is described furtheir 
south by Bieberstein, in bis Flora 'J'auro- 
Caucasica, as ‘ copiosa in dumetis et sepibus., 
It requires a rich strong soil, especially if it 
be rocky a few feet below the surface. It is 
planted in October or Blarcli, shoots up about 
the middle of Apiil, flowers in July, and ripens 
its seeds in September. Warm seasons, with* 
out wet, are required for good crops; great 
heat after rains, and high winds, are destruct- 
ive. Itrnijjbt be cultivated in Nepal, or, 
perhaps, the Deyra Doon ; but it is feaied that 
the rainy season would interfere much with 
the proper growth of the plant. 'I'lie subject 
is well woi ihy of experiment, and a few plants 
would suffice to ascertain the effects of the 
seasons.” Page 333 to 335.” 
CONSIDERATIONS ON A NEW 
FORCE ACTING IN THE FORMA- 
TION OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS., 
By M. Berzelius. 
(Jahrbuch de Schumacher, for 1836. 
When new compounds are produced in 
inorganic nature as the result of the re-action 
of different bodies, it is in consequence of a 
mutual tendency of those bodies to satisfy the 
laws of their affinity, in a more complete man- 
