URTICACEiE. 133 



is produced in Italy. For the production of good fibre the seed is sown close, so as to 

 produce straight stems without branches. The harvesting takes place at two periods, 

 the male plant being pulled up as soon as it has done flowering, and the female not 

 until the seeds arc ripe. After pulling, the leaves are struck off* with a wooden sword, 

 the stems are then tied in bundles, and steeped in water, or water-retted, as it is 

 technically termed (the other processes, dew-retting and snow-retting, are sometimes 

 substituted), the object being to loosen the fibre. They are then spread oiit to dry 

 and bleach ; this is called grassing ; after which the fibre is detached, either by pulling 

 it ofi' by manual labour, or by breaking the stems in a machine, and afterwards 

 scutching them in a similar manner to that employed for the preparation of flax. The 

 uses of hemp in making cordage, canvas, and the material known as brown hoUand, 

 are well known. The seeds, or more properly the fruits containing the seed, are used 

 for feeding cage birds. The imports of hemp in 1858 amounted to 739,339 cwts., the 

 computed real value of which was 1,034,277^., and of hemp-seed 11,090 qrs., value 

 24,0 74Z. 



GENUS I V.—H. U M U L U S. Linn. 



Flowers dioecious. Male flowers with the perianth of 3 to 5 nearly 

 equal sepals : stamens 5, erect. Female flowers in pairs in the axil 

 of a bract, which enlarges much after flowering: perianth of 1 leaf, 

 scalelike, embracing the ovary: style very short; stigmas 2, elongate 

 and subulate. Achene indehiscent. Embryo with the cotyledons 

 rolled up spirally. 



Perennial twining herbs, with opposite stalked palmately cut leaves 

 resembling those of the vine, but rough and with united stipules. 

 Male flowers in lax terminal and axillary panicles ; female flowers in 

 conelike catkins, of which the bracts after flowering become large- and 

 foliaceous, and at length subscarious. 



The name of this genus of plants is derived from the word humus, the gTound, as, 

 unless supported or trained, the species fall to the earth. 



SPECIES L— HUMULUS LUPULUS. Linn. 



Plate MCCLXXXIV. 



Reiclu Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XII. Tab. DCLYI. Fig. 1326. 

 Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 2741. 



Petioles not longer than the lamina of the leaf. Axis of male panicle 

 straight. Scales of female catkin without resinous dots, otherwise 

 glabrous. 



In damp woods and thickets, and in hedgerows. Not uncommon, and 

 generally distributed in the south of England ; more rare in the north, 

 where it is probably not indigenous, as Mr. Baker, in his " North 

 Yorkshire," states that " the heat of the summers of the low country 

 is usually not intense enough to properly ripen the seeds." In Scotland 



