164 COLIN- CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 



ing much like a miniature green pine-cone ; and under 

 each bract of the cone two minute flowers are packed 

 away carefully in a corner, with their calyx reduced to a 

 tiny protective scale, and the rest of their architecture 

 simplified down to a single ovary inclosing one spirally 

 coiled seed. It is the central floral idea reduced to its 

 simplest possible factors. From the scales the sensitive 

 surface protrudes to catch the pollen blown to it in the 

 wild state from the male on its feathery arms ; and then 

 the fertilized cone begins to swell, and the bracts grow 

 out into large inflated cups, quite concealing the small 

 seed-like fruit. Whether their bitterness has been ac- 

 quired as a deterrent to animal enemies it would be hard 

 to say ; certainly, it has not availed to protect them 

 against man, who from time immemorial has employed 

 the hops to flavor the insipid drink which he prepares 

 from malted grain, u in quandam vini similitudinem cor- 

 ruptum," as Tacitus ptrts it, with naive southern con- 

 temptuousness for the barbaric stimulant. Certainly, 

 no other plant has been so little transformed under the 

 hands of man ; for, except so far as the mode of its cul- 

 tivation goes, it is still essentially the same species in the 

 Kentish hop-gardens as it is when it climbs at its own 

 free will over the hedges and thickets of South-western 

 England. 



