This little tree, belonging to the laurel tribe, of which the bark of the young branches forms the cinnamon of commerce, grows in great quantities in the forests of Ceylon. Certain varieties which grow wild on the continent of India were formerly considered to be so many distinct species, but Anglo-Indian botanists are agreed in connecting them with that of Ceylon.[699]
The bark of C. zeylanicum, and that of several uncultivated species of Cinnamonum, which produce the cassia, or Chinese cassia, have been an important article of commerce from a very early period. Flückiger and Hanbury[700] have treated of this historical question with so much learning and thoroughness, that we need only refer to their work, entitled Pharmacographia, or History of the Principal Drugs of Vegetable Origin. It is important from our point of view to note how modern the culture is of the cinnamon tree in comparison with the trade in its product. It was only between 1765 and 1770 that a Ceylon colonist, named de Koke, aided by Falck, the governor of the island, made some plantations which were wonderfully successful. They have diminished in Ceylon in the last few years, but others have been established in the tropical regions of the old and new worlds. The species becomes easily naturalized beyond the limits of cultivation,[701] as birds are fond of the fruit, and drop the seeds in the forests.
China Grass—Boehmeria nivea, Hooker and Arnott.
The cultivation of this valuable Urticacea has been introduced into the south of France and of the United States for about thirty years, but commerce had previously acquainted us with the great value of its fibres, more tenacious than hemp and in some cases flexible as silk. Interesting details on the manner of cultivating the plant and of extracting its fibres[702] may be found in several books; I shall confine myself here to defining as clearly as I can its geographical origin.
To attain this end we must not trust to the vague expressions of most authors, nor to the labels attached to the specimens in herbaria, since frequently no distinction has been made between cultivated, naturalized, or truly wild plants, and the two varieties of Boehmeria nivea (Urtica nivea, Linnæus), and Boehmeria tenacissima, Gaudichaud, or B. candicans, Hasskarl, have been confounded together; forms which appear to be varieties of the same species, because transitions between them have been observed by botanists. There is also a sub-variety, with leaves green on both sides, cultivated by Americans and by M. de Malartic in the south of France.
The variety earliest known (Urtica nivea, L.), with leaves white on the under side, is said to grow in China and some neighbouring countries. Linnæus says it is found on walls in China, which would imply a plant naturalized on rubbish-heaps from cultivation. But Loureiro[703] says, “habitat et abundanter colitur in Cochin-China et China,” and according to Bentham,[704] the collector Champion found it in abundance in the ravines of the island of Hongkong. According to Franchet and Savatier,[705] it exists in Japan in clearings and hedges (in fruticetis umbrosis et sepibus). Blanco[706] says it is common in the Philippine Isles. I find no proof that it is wild in Java, Sumatra, and other islands of the Malay Archipelago. Rumphius[707] knew it only as a cultivated plant. Roxburgh[708] believed it to be a native of Sumatra, but Miquel[709] does not confirm this belief. The other varieties have nowhere been found wild, which supports the theory that they are only the result of cultivation.
Hemp—Cannabis sativa, Linnæus.
Hemp is mentioned, in its two forms, male and female, in the most ancient Chinese works, particularly in the Shu-King, written 500 B.C.[710]
It has Sanskrit names, bhanga and gangika.[711] The root of these words, ang or an, recurs in all the Indo-European and modern Semitic languages: bang in Hindu and Persian, ganga in Bengali,[712] hanf in German, hemp in English, chanvre in French, kanas in Keltic and modern Breton,[713] cannabis in Greek and Latin, cannab in Arabic.[714]
According to Herodotus (born 484 B.C.), the Scythians used hemp, but in his time the Greeks were scarcely acquainted with it.[715] Hiero II., King of Syracuse, bought the hemp used for the cordage of his vessels in Gaul, and Lucilius is the earliest Roman writer who speaks of the plant (100 B.C.). Hebrew books do not mention hemp.[716] It was not used in the fabrics which enveloped the mummies of ancient Egypt. Even at the end of the eighteenth century it was only cultivated in Egypt for the sake of an intoxicating liquid extracted from the plant.[717] The compilation of Jewish laws known as the Talmud, made under the Roman dominion, speaks of its textile properties as of a little-known fact.[718] It seems probable that the Scythians transported this plant from Central Asia and from Russia when they migrated westward about 1500 B.C., a little before the Trojan war. It may also have been introduced by the earlier incursions of the Aryans into Thrace and Western Europe; yet in that case it would have been earlier known in Italy. Hemp has not been found in the lake-dwellings of Switzerland[719] and Northern Italy.[720]