1 Mar., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 199. 
Heonomic Botany. 
No. 5. 
HEMP (CANNABIS SATIVA, Linn.) 
By J. F. BATLEY. 
Derivation.—F rom the Greek word kannabis used by Dioscorides, and that 
from Sanskrit canam ; sativa implies cultivated. 
Description.—An annual, belonging to the order Urticacese (Nettle family), 
with a stem from 3 to 10 feet in height. Teaves numerous on long slender 
stalks, leaflets 5-7, or only 8 in the upper leaves, acute or attenuate at both 
ends, sharply toothed, dark-green above, pale or very finely downy beneath. 
Flowers small; male and female on separate plants. Fruit small. 
Cultivation.—Hemp may be either grown in sandy, gravelly, clayey, or 
peaty soils, which should be deep and fertile, and contain a fair amount of 
humus. It is very scourging when grown for the seeds, but quite non- 
exhausting when nothing of it is carried away from the field, except the fibre. 
The seed is generally sown broadcast, 2 to 2% bushels to the acre, and 
lightly harrowed in; yet they may be raised in drills at distances of about 32 
inches. When grown for fibre, it should be sown thick, in order that the stems 
may run up to a considerable height without branching, whereby a longer fibre is 
obtained : when in flower the whole crop is pulled. If grown for seeds as well as 
fibre, the male plants, which produce the best fibre, are pulled about four or five 
weeks before the female plants; for as soon as the seeds begin to form upon 
the female plants the male plants have fully accomplished all the purposes of 
fecundation, and are in a condition of perfect readiness to yield up a maximum 
of fibre. 
Uses.—The hemp plant is cultivated—(1) for fibre; (2) for the medicinal 
roperties, a resin and a volatile oil, contained in the dried flowering tops of the- 
female plants; and (3) for the seeds (fruits). 
1. The fibre, which is of great tenacity, has been in use from remote 
antiquity for the fabrication of cordage and of strong cloth, such as sail-cloth, 
sacking, &e. 
2. For medicinal purposes there are several forms and preparations of 
hemp, but the only one which is official is that which is known in India under 
the name of Gunjah or Ganja. This consists of the dried tops after flowering, 
and from which the resin has not been removed. Powell says that, when the 
leaves have been picked off from the plant to constitute another form of hemp 
known in India as Bhang, little shoots arise from the stem, and that these when 
picked off and dried form Gunjah. According to Garrod, hemp produces a 
eculiar kind of intoxication, attended with exhilaration of the spirits and 
Penaeinationg’ said to be generally of a pleasing kind. These are followed 
by narcotic effects, sleep, and stupor. It has been administered in different 
forms of neuralgia, spasmodic coughs, tetanus, hydrophobia, and other 
diseases. 
The other forms in which hemp is met with in the East‘are Bhang, Churrus, 
and Hashish. 
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