344 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



coco palm. "Each day the tapped trees of the 

 latter species yield two quarts of sap that boils 

 down to three or four ounces of sugar. That has 

 a nutty fragrance and flavor, as unique as maple 

 sugar. We were not long in learning to melt coco- 

 palm sugar and pour it on grated ripe coconut, 

 thus achieving a sweet supreme. The sugar of the 

 true sugar palm of the market-places looks and 

 tastes like other brown sugar." 



HOPS 



The vine from which the housewife, a generation 

 ago, picked the hops and dried them for use in 

 making a yeast, is still grown in many a backyard, 

 but the compressed yeast and the dry cakes have 

 taken place of the good old-fashioned jug yeast 

 on which the daily bread of the family depended. 

 The hop vine is ornamental now, trailing its long 

 fingers over the lattice that screens from view the 

 neighbors' barns and any unsightly objects in the 

 landscape. One good feature of the hop vine is 

 the twenty feet or more of growth it makes in a 

 single season. While slower vines are coming on 

 it covers its trellis and reaches for more, climbing 

 onto the roof or up telegraph poles, with apparent 

 joy in its freedom. 



