( 3 )
Again, if a plant that is ready for reaping and conversion into commercical
gánjá chances to be exposed for a short time to rain and cloud, which
are conditions that prevent its being harvested, a "second growth " takes place.
This causes enlargement of the bracts at the base of the flower spikes,
and to a less extent of the small leaves on the branches that bear these spikes ;
this unnatural vegetative activity goes on at the expense of the resinous
matter, which, if the plant had been fertilized, would. have been used up in the
growth of the seed. No change takes place in the small special bracts belong-
ing to the individual flowers beyond the absorption of the resin with which
their hairs were gorged; as this resin is, however, the substance for which the
plant is harvested, its disappearance means that the crop has been destroyed.
CHAPTER, II.—THE NARCOTIC ARTICLES OBTAINED FROM HEMP.
In India three narcotic articles are obtained naturally from hemp ; these
are :—Siddhi or Bhang, charas, and gánjá. If the facts already stated be kept
in mind, the relationship of these three becomes perfectly clear, and it is at once
apparent why in particular cases it is, in others is not, necessary to cultivate the
plant in order to obtain the drug. These articles we must consider separately.
I. Siddhi, Bhang, Subji or Patti are different names applied to the dry
leaves of the hemp plant, whether male or female and whether cultivated or
uncultivated.1 T h e n a r c o t i c p r i n c i p l e , a s w e h a v e s e e n , i s s u p p o s e d . t o r e s i d e i n
plants grown in the plains, —and the same is the case with plants grown in the
Indian hills so long as the elevation is below 2,000—3,000 feet,—in the leaves of
both the sexes. Though not present in the young plant, it begins to show itself
before the plant has reached its full size, and is at its maximum about the time
the flowers appear. It continues to be present in the plant so long as the leaves
remain green and active, but does not increase in amount after the appearance
of the flowers in either sex; the vital energy of the plant after that event
is directed in the male to the formation of fibre, in the female to the development
of seed. In the female the resinous material previously formed is drawn upon
during the ripening of the fruit ; this determines the passage of the substance
into the branches on which the flowers are ; the flower-tops, so long as the
flowers remain green, are therefore richer in narcotic in the female than are
the leaves; after the fruits are fully developed, however, it has practically dis-
appeared. In the male the flowers, after shedding their pollen-dust, fade ; there
being, therefore, in this sex no influence to stimulate the passage of the sub-
stance upwards, it does not become removed from the leaves, but continues there
till the leaves themselves wither and dry up. It is, however, questionable
whether the leaves of the male plant are appreciably narcotic ; for just as in the
plains, male plants produce no gánjá, so in the hills, they "are useless for the
production of charas."2 '
2. Charas is the name applied to the resinous matter which forms the
active principle of the plant when collected separately. Throughout the
Western Himalayas and in Turkestan—an area including Nepal, Kamaon, Kash-
mir, Ladakh, Kabul, Hirat, and Bokhara—the resin appears spontaneously
On the surface of the leaves shortly before the flowers begin to show on the
plant. The exudation is most marked, however, on the younger and smaller
leaves near the ends of the branches and on the bracts at the base of the flower-
spikes and. those belonging to the flowers. The substance is collected in various
ways ; the object in each case is to obtain the resin without any admixture of
vegetable tissue. The methods of collection are, however, of less importance
at this point than the conditions that render the collection possible. These
conditions are :—the resin comes spontaneously to the surface at a much
earlier period and over a considerably larger part of the plant in these cooler
regions in which the substance is formed than is the case in the plains; more
important still, the exudation after it appears is comparatively permanent, and
no special measures have to be adopted, as in the plains, to eradicate the
male plant and so prevent its speedy absorption.
1
E x c i s e M a n u a l ,
L . P . ,
1 5 2 .
2 B a t t e n ,
q u o t e d b yB
a d e n - P o we
l l ,
P a n j a b P r o d u c t s ,
p . 5 0 5 .
B 2