The seed 'of hemp is produced in great abundance. It is commonly sold as food for cage-birds; and birds are so fond of it, that not only the ripening fields, but the newly sown fields, must be carefully guarded against their depredations. A fixed oil, oil of hempse,ed, is obtained from it by expression, which is at first greenish yellow and after wards yellow, and has an acrid odor, but a mild taste. This oil is used in Russia for burning in lamps, although the wick is apt to get clogged; also for making paints, varnish, and a kind of soft soap.
Hemp is cultivated in warm countries, not so much for its fiber as for a resinous secretion, which has narcotic or intoxicating qualities. See HAsufsu.
Hemp is also used as a therapeutic agent under the name of INDIAN HEMP, or BITANG. In this country it is administered in the form of resinous extract or of tincture; and it is usually prescribed (like opium) for its hypnotic, anodyne, and antispasmodic proper ties. Although less certain in its action than opium, it possesses these advantages over that drug—that it does not constipate the bowels, create nausea, or check the secretions, and that it is less likely to occasion headache.
The name hemp (Ger. lump is probably derived, along with the Greek and Latin cannabis, from an oriental name, of which one form is the Arabic kinnub. The name hemp is often extended with some distinctive prefix to many of the fibers used for and coarse fabrics, a practice which produces not a little confusion. Thus the fiber of Apocynum cannabiuna (see APOCYNACE,E) is called CANADIAN HEMP, as well as the plant itself; bowstring hemp (q.v.) is the fiber of the species of sanscviera; sunn (q.v.) is often called SuEN HEMP; it iS also known as BENGAL HEMP, BOMBAY HEMP, MADRAS HEMP, and BROWN HEMP; JUBBULPORE Hemp is the produce of another species of crotalario (q.v.); the fiber of hibiscus cannabinus (see Hunscus) is called BROWN HEMP and DECit ANEE HEMP at Bombay; Manila hemp or abaca (q.v.) is the fiber of a musa.