40 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



and decidedly rough, almost prickly, in texture. Lobel ^ 

 called the hop the Vitis Septentrionalium, the vine of the 

 north, primarily because it supplied the northern nations 

 with their beer, as the, southerners found in the vine the 

 source of their wine, but probably the vine-like foliage and 

 far-spreading growth of the hop had some little influence 

 too in the choice of his name. 



The flowers of the hop are what are called dioecious, the 

 male flowers being on one plant, the female on another. 

 The male flowers are small and of a greenish-white ; the 

 plant bearing them is in rustic parlance sometimes called a 

 Jack-hop. The female flowers are stowed carefully away 

 in large cylindrical or ovoid heads or catkins that are con- 

 spicuous from their closely packed broad enveloping scales 

 or bracts. This is the state of things represented in our 

 drawing, Plate VIII. At the base of each of these scales 

 will be found nestled two little pistillate flowers. After the 

 flowering season is over, and to this we may assign some 

 time in July or August, this mass of overlapping scales, 

 often called a cone, continues to increase in size, and this 

 it does very rapidly. It is these matured cones that form 

 the hops of commerce, though to get these in perfection 

 the plant is placed under cultivation. It may appear that 

 our reference to the duration of the flowering time is 

 a little vague, but we have found by experience that much 



' Lobel, bom at Lisle in 1538, was a great lover of plants, travelling in 

 search of them over much of France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany. He 

 also visited England and added much to the knowledge of our plants. Many 

 of these he cultivated in his garden at Hackney. He was a physician, 

 and of such repute that James L appointed him in this capacity to his 

 Royal person. He finally settled down in England, dying in London in 

 the year l6j6. 



