HUR 



H U R 



They are then to be carried into dry upper 

 rooms, to lie three or four weeks to toughen; 

 otherwise they would become powder in the 

 operation of bagging. 



This is performed in large bags, made of about 

 four ells and a half of ell-wide coarse cloth ; 

 about a handful of Hops being first tied into 

 each corner at bottom, to serve as handles ; the 

 bag is then fastened to a hole of due width in 

 the floor, made for that purpose, having a hoop 

 fastened to the mouth of the bag, on which it 

 rests on the edges of the hole ; then a person 

 puts the Hops into the bag, while another is 

 continually treading them down, till the bag is 

 full ; the bag is then unfastened from the hoop, 

 and let down ; and the mouth closed up, tying a 

 handful of Hops also in each corner, as in the 

 bottom part ; they are then ready for market, 

 &c. 



A plantation of Hops will continue in good 

 bearing several years, provided the ground is 

 properly manured; for which the proper manure 

 *s well rotted dung, or a compost of dung 

 and earth, prepared some time for that pur- 

 pose; and of either, from about twenty to forty 

 cart-loads are the common allowance for an 

 acre; the former quantity is generally allowed 

 when dung is scarce, laying it only along the 

 hills of plants to be dugin in winter or spring; 

 but the best way is to allow about forty loads, 

 and dig or plough it in any time from October 

 till March ; as such a dressing need not be re- 

 peated but once in two or three years, or there- 

 abouts. 



After the ground is cleared every year from 

 the Hops, care should be taken of the poles, 

 which, if they could be laid under any covered 

 place,it would greatly preserve them ; but. for want 

 of such convenience, they arc usually placedjin par- 

 cels upright in the open air, first fixing three or 

 six poles firmly in the ground, in a triangular 

 manner, wide at bottom, and tied together at 

 top; then setting as many of the rest of the poles 

 about them as may seem convenient. And as 

 the poles decay, new ones must be provided. 

 These may be of any wood; but the sorts com- 

 monly used are ash, birch, maple, sycamore, 

 willow, poplar, and chesnut. It requires about 

 three thousand polcs'to an acre, allowing three 

 to each bill. 



These plants are seldom cultivated in the gar- 

 den, but as climbers for the purpose of affording 

 ornament and variety, as they readily twist 

 round any support to the height of twenty feet 

 or more. 



HURA, a genus furnishing a plant of the 

 exotic tree kind, for the stove. 



It belongs to the class and order Monoecia 



Monadelpkia, and ranks in the natural order of 

 Tricoccce. 



The characters are : that in the male flowers 

 the calyx is an anient from the divarication of 

 the branches, oblong, drooping, covered with 

 sessile, spreading florets : scales oblong : peri- 

 anthium within each scale of the anient, cylin- 

 dric, two-leaved, truncate, very short : there is 

 no corolla: the stamina have a cylindric fila- 

 ment, a little longer than the calyx, peltate at 

 the tip, rigid, below the tip twice or thrice verti- 

 celled with tubercles : anthers- two, immersed 

 in each tubercle, oval, bifid : female flower in 

 the same plant : the calyx is a one-leafed peri- 

 anthium, cylindric, furrowed, truncate, quite 

 entire, closely surrounding the germ : there is 

 no corolla: the pistillum is a roundish germ, 

 within the calyx : style cylindric, long : stigma 

 large, funnel-shaped, plano-convex, coloured, 

 twelve-cleft,blunt, equal: thepericarpium woody, 

 orbiculate, or globular-flatted, torose, with 

 twelve furrows, twelve-celled : cells dissilient, 

 crescent-shaped, with an elastic dagger point at 

 the end : the seeds solitary, compressed, sub- 

 orbiculate, and large. 



The species is H. crepitans, Sand Box Tree. 



It rises with a soft woody stem' to the height 

 of twenty - four feet, dividing into many 

 branches, which abound with a milky juice, 

 and have scars on their bark, where the leaves 

 have fallen off. The branches are garnished 

 with heart-shaped leaves ; those which are big- 

 gest are eleven inches long, and nine inches 

 broad in the middle, indented on their edges, 

 having a prominent midrib, with several trans- 

 verse veins from that to the sides, which are 

 alternate; these stand upon long slender foot- 

 stalks : the male flowers come out from be- 

 tween the leaves, upon peduncles which are 

 three inches long ; they are formed into a close 

 spike, or catkin, forming a column, lying over 

 each other like the scales of fish. The female 

 flowers are solitary, and very near the ament : 

 the leaves are alternate, and accompanied by 

 caducous stipules ; the petiole is glandular 

 above; the vounger leaves are involuted. The 

 fruit is curious in its structure; and the tree, 

 when it grows well, spreading and shady. It is 

 a native of the Spanish West Indies. 



Culture. — This plant is increased by sowing the 

 seeds procured from abroad, in the early spring, 

 in pots filled with rich earth, plunging them 

 in a mild hot-bed of bark. When the plants 

 have attained a few inches growth, they should 

 be removed into separate pots of a small 

 size, watering them, and replunging them in 

 the bark bed of the stove, where they must 

 be constantly kept, being occasionally removed 



