266 Variation in Wild Hop 



395 plants which have been examined ; the figures indicate the number 

 of plants in which any particular combination in the three series was 

 found. 



It is to be observed that the above divisions are altogether arbitrary 

 and only show the range of variation in the plants which came under 

 observation ; with a large number of plants probably more extreme cases 

 would be met with making necessary a modification of the divisions. It 

 is also to be noted that only the extreme forms and the obviously inter- 

 mediate ones can be readily assigned to their particular divisions ; the 

 rest are placed as they tend on the whole, with the records to hand, 

 towards one or the other extreme or towards the intermediate type\ 

 Thus with the three series of characters selected, each considered as com- 

 prising three divisions, there are 27 possible combinations of characters 

 for each sex, of these 17 have been observed among the (^ plants and 16 

 among the % plants in an examination of 895 plants in all. 



It will be seen from the table that the great majority of the plants 

 have red bines, that most of these again are included under " midseason " 

 or "late," and have few (or a moderate number of) glands. 



Of all the plants examined not one has proved to be of any com- 

 mercial value, the majority being much too late and all having hops too 

 small to make cultivation of the plants a profitable undertaking under 

 modern conditions. The fact that resistance to HojT Mildew is a character 

 of some of the seedlings suggests that this desirable quality might by 

 breeding operations be combined with other qualities of a good hop ; in 

 one plant, OA 34, it is combined with relatively good " condition " and 

 a pleasant aroma. 



We have not been able to find any detailed account of variations 

 observed in the wild hop. Braungart (3), in his elaborate monograph on 

 the cultivated varieties of the hop, deals only very cursorily with the 

 wild species I Systematists have separated one variety, viz. hrachy- 

 stachyus Zapal. Gonsp. Fl. Galic. ii. 94 (1908), described as follows: 



1 No individual seedling has been met with which, as regards the characters noted in 

 the present paper, has shown fluctuations ranging from one extreme to the other. 



^ Braungart (3), p. 146, referring to the wild hop growing in Switzerland, says: "Die 

 in unmittelbarer Niihe stehenden Individuen sind sich dabei oft nach alien Richtungen, 

 auch in den Zapfen, sehr ahnlich, oft aber auch nicht, und welter entfernt voneinander 

 stehende sind meist nach alien Beziehungen sehr abweichend." In a paper by J. Schmidt 

 (C. rend. trav. Lab. Carlsherg, Vol. xi. 314 — 329 (1917)) entitled " The occurrence of the 

 wild hop in Denmark," a reference is made to " the numerous forms in which this plant 

 occurs" but their distribution, and not their characteristics, is mainly discussed. Further, 

 Schmidt uses the term "wild" merely to indicate " not cultivated," and it seems probable 

 that he is dealing partly with escapes from cultivation. 



