THE HOP 



first touch and then coil itself round and round the trunk.^ 

 Of these twining stems, one of the most interesting and 

 beautiful is the common Hop. The young shoots or suckers 

 which come from the ground may be seen waving their 

 stems helplessly round in the air. If they cannot find some- 

 thing to cling to, then they form weak limp curves, but if 

 one such shoot touches a pole it very soon obtains a hold, 

 wraps itself round the support, and easily climbs up to 

 a height of many feet. But the Hop is worth examining 

 closely. If one passes the fingers along the stem, it feels 

 rough and prickly. With the aid of a hand-lens, a whole 

 series of most exquisite little hooks will be discovered. They 

 are like small pimples with two or three very fine and minute, 

 sharp grappling-hooks on the top. These prevent the stem 

 from slipping off. It is also helped in climbing by its 

 leaves, which curve outwards, and are also provided with 

 grappling prickles on the under side. At the top of the 

 stem the young leaves are close together, and folded near the 

 point, so as not to interfere with the tip finding its way in 

 and out of a trellis- work or amongst branches. 



These grappling-hooks on the Hop are as perfect in their 

 way, though by no means so beautiful and elegant as those 

 which are found in the climbing palm, Desmoncus, so well 

 described by Kerner in his Natural History of Plants. It is 

 one of the rotang palms which reach lengths of 600 feet, 

 though their stem may be no more than IJ to 2 inches 

 thick. The leaflets towards the end of the leaf are trans- 

 formed into strong spiny barbs which are exquisitely adapted 

 to hang on to other plants. In many places, thickets in 

 which these rotang palms have developed are so matted and 



^ Henslow, Origin of Plant Structures ; Warming, Beo. Gen. de Bot., 

 torn. 5, p. 213. 



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