16 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94.
[CH.
II.
other hand, the Latin and Greek Cannabis is apparently derived from the Arabic
kinnab. De Candolle says that 'the species has been found wild beyond a
doubt to the south of the Caspian Sea, in Siberia, near the Irtysch in the
deserts of the Kirghiz, beyond lake Baikal, and in Dahuria.' He is doubtful
of its being a native of Southern and Central Russia, but suspects that its area
may have extended into China, and is not sure about the plant being indigenous to
Persia." The only part of India included by Dr. Watt and his authorities in
the area of indigenous growth is therefore the Western Himalayas and Kashmir,
and that only in doubtful language. Dr. King, Director, Botanic Survey of India,
has no hesitation in pronouncing the so-called wild growth of India to be an escape
from cultivation; and when it is remembered that Kashmir is on the main line
of trade between Central Asia and Hindustan, the wild growth in that country and its
neighbourhood may fairly be attributed to accidental importation by the hand of
man from the recognized habitat, if not to escape from cultivation carried on at
one time or other in the country itself. The evidence of botanists, therefore, may
be taken to exclude India from the area of indigenous growth, and it will be seen
that the direct inquiries of the Commission tend to confirm this view.
Is the fibre plant identical with the
narcotic plant?
20. The specific identity of the fibre-yielding and narcotic-yielding plants,
point (b), and the points which follow, are important
as involving the possibility
that the restric-
tion of the production of the narcotic by limiting the cultivation may
affect a product and an industry which are above suspicion. On the
question of identity there is now no difference of scientific opinion. The
researches of Dr. Watt are thus summarized: "Cannabis indica has been reduced
to Cannabis sativa, the Indian plant being viewed as but an Asiatic condition of
that species......The reduction became the more necessary when it was fully under-
stood that, according to climate and soil, the Indian plant varied in as marked a
degree as it differed from the European............With Cannabis indica differ-
ing in so marked a degree according to the climate, soil, and mode of cultivation,
it was rightly concluded that its separation from the hemp plant of Europe could
not be maintained"; and he compares the hemp plant to the potato, the tobacco,
and the poppy, all of which "seem to have the power of growing with equal
luxuriance under almost any climatic condition, changing or modifying some im-
portant function as if to adapt themselves to the altered circumstances." Dr.
Prain, after personal examination of the plant, has recorded his opinion in the
following words: "There are no botanical characters to separate the Indian
plant from Cannabis sativa, and they do not differ as regards the structure of
stem, leaves, flowers, or fruit
............Hemp,
therefore, as a fibre-yielding plant
in no way differs from hemp as a narcotic-producing one." These are the most
recent scientific views, and coming from Indian botanists they carry special au-
thority. It may be noted that Dr. W. C. Mackenzie, in an article on Hashish in
the "Chemist and Druggist" of 9th July 1893, mentions certain differences
between the seeds of Cannabis indica and those of common hemp. In using the
name Cannabis indica, and pointing out this difference, is indicated a belief
that the two plants are distinct varieties.
Description of the hemp plant.
21. At pages 38-39 of his report Dr. Prain has described the hemp plant.
There are only two points on which the Commission
from their own observations and inquiries feel