250 Variatio7i in Wild Hop 



which has only been under critical examination for two years but in both 

 these years leaves with 7 lobes and others with 9 lobes were present. 



This tendency was shown by two plants Avhen grown under green- 

 house conditions; these were the two "very early" </ plants Z 17 and 

 Z 42. Cuttings from these two plants had been planted in pots and 

 placed in the greenhouse to test their power of resistance to mildew 

 under those conditions. Hop plants when grown in the small (about 

 5 in. diameter) pots used for these greenhouse trials generally give rise 

 to small unlobed or 3-lobed leaves. In March 1920 four pots of Z 17 

 and five of Z 42 were producing young bines which at that time were 

 about six inches high and the following notes were taken : 



Z 17. In three pots the bines had 9-lobed leaves, i.e., of the five 

 primary lobes the terminal was again 3-lobed and the basal lobes each 

 2-lobed. In the fourth was one bine only ; this bore 9-lobed leaves below 

 then 7- and o-lobed forms and 3-lobed leaves above. 



Z 42. In two pots the lower leaves were 5-lobed and the upper, 

 3-lobed; in another the leaves were 7-lobed (i.e. terminal lobe 3-lobed) ; 

 in the fourth the leaves were all 5-lobed, while in the fifth the lower 

 leaves were almost entire and the rest 3-lobed. 



The tendency to produce leaves more divided than usual was thus 

 very distinctly shown by Z 17, less distinctly by Z 42, and this was 

 borne out by observations in the open, the original plants being care- 

 fully examined in the summer of 1920 when it was found that the leaves 

 of Z 17 were 5 — 9 lobed while on Z 42 a few leaves with 7 lobes could 

 be found and none with 9 lobes ^ 



These 7- and 9-lobed leaves bear a close resemblance to those of a 

 hop cultivated in Oregon known as the Oregon Cluster which appears 

 to belong to the species Humidus Aviericanus Nuttall (see (1)). 



One plant, OD 24, shows variation in the other direction, the leaves 

 being 3-lobed only ; the leaves of this plant have other characteristic 

 features — they are dark green with a rather glossy surface and the lobes 

 are narrower and more acutely pointed than in the usual type. 



(5) Colour of the Leaves. 



The range of colour shown by the leaves is not great but certain 

 seedlings could be distinguished by having leaves evidently paler or 

 darker than the majority. This character was not taken into account 



1 In Braungart's (3) work (p. 149), we find the statement : "In Weihenstephan war am 

 Zaune des Hopfenvarietatengarten ein Wildhopfen, der ofter in der unteren Eegion 

 7 lappige Blatter batte. " 



