Cannabis spp.
Schultes and Hofmann (with Rätsch), the authors of Plants of the Gods, write of a relationship between Cannabis and humanity that “has existed now probably for ten thousand years—since the discovery of agriculture in the Old World.”
They document ancient uses of this multi-purpose plant in India, China and elsewhere.
Cannabis was taken to many regions throughout the world, eventually arriving in the Americas: “Rarely is an introduced foreign plant adopted and used in indigenous ceremonies, but it seems that the Cora of Mexico and the Cuna of Panama have taken up the ritual smoking of cannabis, notwithstanding the fact that, in both areas, it was brought in by the early Europeans.”
We are also delighted to include a series of images of Cannabis taken by Jill Pflugheber with the Zyla, a fluorescence camera used, in this case, with a lower power objective given the thickness of the slide. These highly-selective results broaden the definition of Microcosmic Phytoformalism to include a visual experience based on out-of-focus fluorescence, a more impressionistic depiction of light and form.
