Anglo-Ind. Also 8 son, 8–9 sun, 9 san. [a. Urdū, Hindī san (Skr. çāṇá hempen).] A branching leguminous shrub, Crotalaria juncea, with long narrow leaves and bright yellow flowers, widely cultivated in Southern Asia for its fiber; also, the fiber of this plant used for rope, cordage, sacking, etc.
1774. Phil. Trans., LXIV. 99. Of the Culture and Uses of the Son or Sun-plant of Hindostan.
1800. Ann. Reg., Chron., 38/1. The new species of hemp called sun, the produce of Bengal … has turned out nearly equal to our own rope.
1813. W. Milburn, Oriental Comm. (1825), 289. At Comercolly there are two species of sunn; the best is called phool, the other boggy.
1851. Forbes, Veg. World, in Art Jrnl. Illust. Cat., II. p. vj †/2. The Bengal hemp or sun.
1894. Times, 17 Aug., 9/4. All binding twine manufactured in whole or in part from New Zealand hemp, istle or Tampico fibre, sisal grass, or sunn.
b. transf. Applied to Hibiscus cannabinus, which yields brown or Indian hemp.
1846. Lindley, Veget. Kingd., 369. We know Hibiscus cannabinus, or Sun, is [cultivated] in India, as a substitute for hemp.
c. attrib., as sunn-hemp, -plant, -waste.
1774. [see above].
1849. Balfour, Man. Bot., § 782. Hibiscus cannabinus is the source whence sun-hemp is procured in India.
1855. Stephens, Bk. Farm (ed. 2), § 3139. Crotolaria juncea, the sun hemp.
1887. Moloney, Forestry W. Afr., 186. For Paper-making, the only Indian fibres that seemed hopeful were bamboo…, plantain…, jule, and sunn waste.
