HEMP. 249 
stances, by way of perfume. It was formerly much used 
in medicine, as a remedy against pain in the teeth and 
gums ; and, dissolved in spirit of wine, as a r.elief 
in obstinate and long continued coughs : but it is now 
almost wholly disused for these purposes; and is chiefly 
employed in the composition of varnish, and by den- 
tists, for filling up the cavities of decayed teeth. 
The wood of the mastic-tree is imported in thick 
knotty pieces, covered externally with an ash-coloured 
bark. This wood is accounted a mild, balsamic 
astringent ; and a preparation of it, under the name of 
aurum potabile, is strongly recommended, by some of 
the German writers, in coughs, nausea, and weakness of 
the stomach. 
259. HEMP is the fibrous part of the stalks of a plant 
(Cannabis sativa, Fig. 83) which grows wild in the East In- 
dies, and is much cultivated in different parts of Europe. 
It has the lower leaves in slender finger-like divisions ; the 
male flowers in small loose spikes, at the end of the stem and 
branches; and the female flowers single, at the junction of the 
leaves and stem, 
The principal country for hemp, as an article of 
commerce, is Russia, few other countries of Europe 
growing a quantity sufficient for their own consump- 
tion, it is cultivated in some parts of Britain, but 
particularly in the counties of Suffolk and Norfolk. 
The soil best adapted to it is a moist but loose sandy 
loam, or the black mould of low lands near water. 
The seed is sown in April or May ; and the plants, 
which attain the height of five or six feet, are in a 
state to be pulled up in three or four months ; the male 
plant, or flmble hemp, as it is called, being ready some 
time before the female plants, which have the name of 
/carle or seed-hemp. 
As soon as the hemp is pulled, it is tied in bundles 
and set up to dry ; and, at the end of about ten days, 
the bundles are loosened at the top, and the heads are 
held upon a hurdle by one person, whilst another, with 
a small threshing-flail, beats out the seed. 
M 5 
