Hemp

The hemp-fiber is the product of the Cannabis sativa, which is grown for textile purposes chiefly in Ru ia and Italy, while the seed is grown in India. It is a bast-fiber similar to that of the flax-plant, but coarser and stronger, and of deeper color, and le luster. It is used chiefly for the manufacture of ropes and cordage, and the fabric woven from it, known as canvas, is used in sail-making. Hemp is a mixture of cellulose and bastose. H., Manila, is a tropical fiber obtained on the Philippine Islands from the leaves of the wild plantain. It furnishes a very superior rope-making fiber, because of its combined lightne and strength, and the finer grades are used for woven goods. The color is yellowish or white, and the white variety has a fine silky luster. H., Suron, is grown in India, and furnishes a fiber of light-yellowish color. It resembles jute, although le lustrous. It is well adapted for cordage and netting. H., Sisal (or henequen), is derived from the fleshy leaves of a species of agave grown in Yucatan and the West Indies. It is used largely in the United States as a substitute for jute in the manufacture of bagging and for cordage, being stronger and lighter than jute. See also Cannabis . H. -nettle. See Galeopsis . H.-seed Calculus, a small rounded urinary concretion composed of oxalate of lime. It may vary in size from a pin's head to that of a hempseed, and is smooth and dark-colored. H.-seed Oil, oleum cannabis, is obtained from the seeds of the Cannabis sativa or common hemp. It has a mild odor, but mawkish taste, and greenish-yellow color, turning brown with age. Its specific gravity at 1 50 C. is.9276. It is freely soluble in boiling alcohol, has weaker drying properties than linseed oil, but is used in paint and varnish manufacture and in making soft soaps.