146 TYPES OF BRITISH PLANTS 
with a very narrow and barricaded entrance, and all the 
above flowers are inside the cup. ‘There the fruit is 
formed, each little flower having its own seed-vessel, and 
the flower-stalk swells enormously, until the seed-vessels 
are almost close packed in the inside. As we know the ~ 
fig (squeezed in a box), its shape has been lost, but the 
hard “seeds” within, as we call them, are really so many 
seed-vessels. Another fruit of this order, very famous in 
story, though, I believe, rather disappointing in reality, is 
the Bread Fruit tree of the South Sea Islands, of which 
one has had exalted, if vague, ideas from the day one was 
fortunate enough to read Zhe Coral Island for the first 
time. 
To return to our English plants, the Hop demands a 
moment’s notice, for it is the only plant in the group that 
makes a regular practice of climbing up by supports, 
although the little Pellitory sometimes makes a weak 
attempt at it. It has not any special climbing apparatus, 
like the tendrils of the Vine, or the suckers of the Ivy, 
but secures its end simply by the constant twisting of the 
stem, which is rough and very strong. In its first stage 
it grows upright like a young nettle, but after it has got 
a few leaves the top part of the stem begins to swing 
round in a circle, seeking for some friendly help. In a 
hop garden it, of course, meets a pole put ready for it, but 
the wild one has to trust to fortune. Generally it is able 
to find a hedge, and twines round one of the branches. As 
the stem grows, the free end continues to wind round and 
round, the minor branches doing the same on their own 
account, until the hop gets to the top of the hedge, and 
wins thereby the valuable prize of an ample share of sun- 
light. Stamens and pistils are on separate flowers, and 
the former are arranged singly, whilst the pistils and seeds 
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