122 
Culture  of  Gunjdh  in  Bengal. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Phaem. 
\    Mar.  1, 1874. 
manured  with  oil-cakes.  The  more  oil-cakes  are  used  the  more  the 
plants  thrive.  At  the  end  of  January  the  plants  mature,  and  the 
harvest  season  commences.  The  plants  are  cut  by  the  cultivators  and 
divided  into  four  or  five  parts,  and  exposed  to  the  rays  of  the  sun  for 
three  or  four  days  ;  the  leaves  being  withered,  are  spread  on  mats  and 
trampled  upon,  and  they  assume  the  flat  shape  in  which  ganja  is  sold 
in  the  market.  Round  ganja  is  prepared  by  a  similar  process  ;  the 
stalks  being  taken  off,  each  branch  is  rolled  up  and  dried.  Chur  ganja 
consists  of  flowers  and  leaves.  There  is  no  difference  in  the  narcotic 
powers  of  these  three  descriptions  of  ganja.  The  natives  of  the  Turk- 
ish empire  and  the  North  of  Africa  are  far  more  addicted  to  the  use  of 
haschisch,  or  hemp,  than  to  that  of  opium.  They  have  a  similar  effect, 
yet  the  former  is  decidedly  preferred.  They  use  either  the  dried 
leaves  in  smoking,  or  they  drink  the  expressed  juice,  or  use  it  in  the 
form  of  cakes  soaked  with  that  essence.  Much  uncertainty  prevails 
among  botanists  regarding  the  plant  or  plants  which  produce  these 
narcotics — whether  they  are  different  species  or  mere  varieties  of  the 
common  hemp.*  Probably  0.  sativa  and  0.  indica  are  identical,  yield- 
ing the  ganja  and  bhang  of  the  East.  Both  the  above  drugs  are  sold 
separate  in  the  Indian  bazaars,  and  in  external  appearance  are  con- 
siderably different.  Ganja  has  a  strong  aromatic  and  heavy  odor, 
abounds  in  resin,  and  is  sold  in  the  form  of  flowering  stalks  for  smo- 
king with  tobacco.  It  is  made  up  in  bundles  about  two  feet  long  and 
three  inches  in  diameter,  containing  about  twenty-four  plants.  Bhang 
is  in  the  form  of  dried  leaves  without  stalk,  of  a  dull  green  color,  not 
much  odor,  and  only  slightly  resinous.  Bhang  is  not  smoked,  but 
pounded  up  with  water  into  a  pulp,  so  as  to  make  a  drink  highly  con- 
ducive to  health,  and  people  accustomed  to  it  seldom  get  sick.  Bhang 
grows  in  abundance  in  Tirhoot  and  Bhagulpoor  in  the  wild  state.  In 
Scinde  a  stimulating  infusion  made  from  the  plant  is  much  drunk 
among  the  upper  classes,  who  imagine  it  is  an  improver  of  the  appe- 
tite. Ganja  is  frequently  mixed  with  tobacco  to  make  it  more  intox- 
icating. This  is  especially  done  by  the  Hottentots,  who  chop  the 
hemp  leaves  very  fine,  and  smoke  them  together  in  this  manner. 
Sometimes  the  leaves  powdered  are  mixed  with  aromatics,  and  thus 
taken  as  a  beverage,  producing  much  the  same  effects  as  opium,  only 
more  agreeable.    The  cost  of  cultivating  a  beegah  of  land  varies  from 
*  "  Canadian  Pharmaceutical  Journal." 
