Talk:Nair & Nordal 4090 (1959)
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Evidentiary scope
The label calls the plant A planted shrub at Kalaw, gathered in January 1959, and gives the Burmese name Se-gyauk. It names no grower and no garden, station or nursery; other sheets of the same series name the garden where a plant grew (the A.R.D.C. Nursery and the Botanical Garden at Maymyo, in the catalogue's words), and this one does not. Drug-type cannabis from different regions began to be cross-bred, and its seed carried into old growing areas, in the 1970s (McPartland and Small 2020, pp. 84–85), so a hybrid origin is not considered for a sheet gathered in 1959. The accession is classified Landrace, by inference from the label. The label's medicinal notes describe the plant's properties and say nothing of a local use (see Editorial treatment). The sheet does not show what became of the planting or whether its seed survives, and no conservation priority is assigned.
Label reading
Read twice, independently, from the Oslo image of O-V-2003823 (4912 × 7360 pixels); the page states only what the two readings agree.
- Typed label, lower right: printed Dr. A. Nordal / PHARMACOGNOSTICAL HERBARIUM; typed Flora of BURMA / No. 4090 / Date, 2.1.59 / Botanical Name: Cannabis sativa L. with var. indica added by hand above / Family : CANNABINACEAE / Burmese Name handwritten Se-gyauk / English Name : The HEMP PLANT / Locality : KALAW / Remarks A planted shrub,perennial with palmate compound leaves;dioecious. Female plants medicinal. / Collected by:Dewan Mohinder Nath Nair & Dr. A.S.Nordal / Determinavit:Dewan Mohinder Nath Nair / Medicinal properties:Plant used as tonic,intoxicant,antiseptic,analgesic,narcotic,sedative and anodyne.
- Other marks: S.N. 80 in blue above the label; 81 in pencil at its foot; a pencil note at mid-right, Hr. followed by a word neither reading could make out; pencil Cannabinaceae and a typed slip 4090. Cannabis sativa L. at the lower left; barcode label Herb. Univers. Osloënsis, imaged 2014.
Georeferencing
The point 20.64, 96.57 is the town of Kalaw, OpenStreetMap node 2241969824 (Wikidata Q6351676), in Shan State. The label names the town and no place within it, and gives no altitude; the SRTM height at the node is 1,315 metres. The town's built-up area is about 3.5 km across. The point places the gathering at the town, not at a spot within it. The point of the Myelat growing area, 20.69, 96.62, is the middle of that area, about 8 km to the north-east. Basis: settlement point. Uncertainty: about 4 km.
Editorial treatment
Date. The label writes 2.1.59; the holder reads it as 2 January 1959, the day-first order of the label's typing. The other sheets the two men gathered at Kalaw carry the same date, and those gathered between Kalaw and Thazi the next day's date, 3 January.
Medicinal notes. On other sheets of the series the Medicinal properties line reports what a reference book says about the plant: one Kalaw sheet of the same day, a Clematis, reads Not mentioned in the "Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants" by Col. Chopra & others. The line on this sheet is therefore not taken as evidence of how cannabis was used at Kalaw. The remark Female plants medicinal is reported as written.
Collectors. The collector field takes the label's two names in initials form. Nordal is linked by his full name, which the Norwegian biographical dictionary gives with his dates (1909–2002); no source read for this page gives Nair's dates, so his name is not linked.
Scientific name. The infobox takes the holder's name, Cannabis sativa var. indica (Lam.) Wehmer, which matches the label's Cannabis sativa L. with var. indica added by hand.
Burmese name. The local name field takes the label's Se-gyauk as written; no source read for this page glosses it.
Source citations remain in the article. Éloise 10:20, 20 October 2026 (+07)