It is well recognized that Cannabis sativa represents one of man's oldest cultivated plants—perhaps its oldest—going back to the very beginnings of agriculture in the Old World 10,000 or more years ago. Over these millenia, it has acquired numerous uses: as a source of fibre, a folk medicine, an edible achene, an oil, and a narcotic. It has been carried across continents, cultivated in many different environments, escaped widely as a weed and, at least in certain areas of central Asia, may have hybridized with C. indica. All of these and other factors have combined to make the species one of the most enigmatically complex and variable of man's cultivated plants.

 

Much has been done in the investigation of many aspects of the botany and agronomy of Cannabis. The results of these studies are widely dispersed and often published in obscure journals difficult to locate. In this volume, Clarke has bravely attempted to gather together an amazing mass of data of this type and has tried to interpret its significance to the practical problems of Cannabis cultivation.

 

While some of his interpretations on occasion may be open to question, the utility of his splendid effort will be widely appreciated. His Marijuana Botany will be constantly consulted by a wide variety of researchers in the years to come.

 

Richard Evans Schultes