NAT. ORDER. 



ScabridcB. 



HUMULUS LUPULUS. 



THE COMMON HOP. 



Pentandria. 



Corolla, none. 



Styles two. 



Class XXII. Dkecia. Order V. 

 Gen. Char. Male : Calyx five-leaved. 



Seed, one, with a leafed calyx. 

 Spe, char. none. 



The Hop is an indigenous, perennial plant, growing in hedges, 

 flowering in June and July, and ripening its seeds in September. 

 Sir J. E. Smith considers the hop as truly wild in England, notwith- 

 standing the old distich — that 



" Turkej's, carp, hops, pickerel, and beer, 

 Came into England all in one year." 



This is supposed to have been in Henry VIH's reign, when per- 

 haps, hops were first used for making beer, and, (as has been the 

 case with many other plants), might be imported from abroad, 

 though really wild at home. The female plants are very extensive- 

 ly cultivated at the present time both in England and the United 

 States, principally for the use of brewers, who consume large quan- 

 tities of the strobiles in the brewing of malt liquors. 



There is but one species of the genus Hamulus, the male and 

 female flowers are on separate plants. The roots are branching, 

 from which arise many long, twining, rough, angular, flexible stems, 

 which support themselves by twining round bodies that may be 

 placed near them ; the leaves are opposite, in pairs, petiolate, cor- 

 date, or entire, serrated, of a dark green on the upper disc, paler 

 beneath ; both the leaves and petioles arc scabrous, with minute 

 prickles ; and at the base of each leaf-stalk are two intcrfoliaceous, 

 entire, reflected, smooth, stipules ; the Jlowers are axillary or termi- 



