HORDEIN. 



increase since 1693; when they were first suc- 

 cessfully cultivated in Kent: in 1807, it was 

 found that the hop-grounds throughout Eng- 

 land amounted to 38,218 acres: these had in- 

 creased to 46,293 acres in 1817, to 49,485 in 

 1827, and to 56,323 acres in 1837; they had 

 decreased however in 1839 to 52,365. 



Hops are extensively and advantageously 

 cultivated in some parts of the United States. 

 Gurdon Avery, in the village of Waterloo, 

 Oneida county, N. Y., raised in 1842, on 12 

 acres of land, 29,937 Ibs. of hops. 



The hop is also well known as a garden 

 plant. It blows its flowers from June till Au- 

 gust, and is propagated by seed and by dividing 

 the roots. It likes a deep loamy soil, and is 

 valuable as an ornamental climber over tem- 

 porary arbours, trellis, &c. in summer, as its 

 leaves are very large, and make a fine shade. 

 The "white bind" and the "gray bind" are the 

 best sorts for this purpose ; they succeed each 

 other. 



The young shoots of the hop are eaten as a 

 depurative ; the flowers, besides their bitter 

 narcotic qualities, are diuretic and sedative. 



HORDEIN. A modification of starch, which, 

 according to Proust, constitutes about 55 per 

 cent, of barley-meal. 



HORDEUM. The barley-grasses. Besides 

 the species of cultivated barley enumerated in 

 the article under that head, there are three in- 

 digenous species which grow wild in Eng- 

 land. 



Hordcum murinum. Wall-barley, mouse-bar- 

 ley, or way-bennet grass. 



This is an annual grass, with a fibrous root, 

 supporting a number of culms 12 to 18 inches 

 high, procumbent at the base, afterwards erect, 

 with three or four joints. Spikes-brittle, two 

 or three inches long, flowers placed in two 

 rows. This is one of the most inferior grasses 

 with respect to nutritive powers ; and the long 

 awns, with which it is armed must make it 

 dangerous to the mouths of horses, when it 

 enters into the composition of their hay. For- 

 tunately it is uncommon in pastures, being 

 chiefly confined to roadsides and other beaten 

 or barren places. I never could observe this 

 grass eaten by cattle of any description, not 

 even by the half-starved animals which feed 

 by roadsides, where, in England, this is often 

 the most prevalent grass. Dr. Withering, 

 however, says, it is eaten by sheep and horses, 

 and that it feeds the brown moth (Phulana 

 granella), and the barley-fly (Musca frit.) The 

 nutritive matter afforded by this grass consists 

 chiefly of mucilage and extractive matter inso- 

 luble after the evaporation of a decoction of it. 

 It flowers in England about the first week of 

 July, and the seed is ripe towards the end of 

 the same month. 



Hordcum pratense. Meadow barley-grass. 

 PI. 5, d. This species has some affinity to the ; 

 wall barley-grass in appearance, but differs 

 from it in being strictly perennial ; and in i 

 having the culms more slender, much taller, 

 and erect, and the sheaths roundish ; the spike 

 (about two inches long) is also slender in com- 

 parison with that of the H. nmrinum, and of a 

 purple or greenish hue, while that of the wall 

 barley-grass is of a dirty yellow. The husks 

 634 



HORN. 



of the calyx are bristle-shaped, rough, but not 

 ciliate, and the awns much shorter. 



This is a very hardy grass, which is tolera- 

 bly early in the spring produce of foliage, and 

 its nutritive powers are considerable. Though 

 said to be partial to dry chalky soils, I have 

 always found this grass most prevalent on 

 good rich meadow ground ; it thrives under 

 irrigation, and there are but few pastures in 

 which it is not to be found. The Rev. G. 

 Swayne observes, that in moist meadows it 

 produces a considerable quantity of hay, but is 

 not to be recommended as one of the best 

 grasses for the farmer. It is liable to the same 

 objection as the last, viz., the long sharp awns 

 with which the spikelets are armed, rendering 

 it dangerous to the mouths of cattle by stick- 

 ing in small fragments to their gums and pro- 

 ducing inflammation. In England it flowers 

 in July, and the seed is ripe in August. 



Hordeum maritimum. Sea-barley, or squirrel- 

 tail grass. This species is annual in its habit, 

 and grows in pastures and sandy ground near 

 the sea. It most resembles H. murinum in ge- 

 neral habit, but is on the whole rather smaller, 

 and more glaucous. The awns are all rougher, 

 with minute bristly teeth. The plant is not of 

 common occurrence, although it abounds in 

 the isle of Thanet. (Eng. Flor. vol. i. p. 179; 

 Hort. Gram. Wob.) 



HOREHOUND, WATER. One of the names 

 of the common gipsy-wort (Lycopus Europaus) ; 

 which see. 



The plant called by this name in the United 

 States, is the L. sinuatus, which frequents the 

 low grounds of Pennsylvania and other Middle 

 States. (Flora Cestrica.) 



HOREHOUND, WHITE (Marrubium vul- 

 gctre, from marrob, a Hebrew word, signifying a 

 bitter juice ; in allusion to the extreme bitter- 

 ness of the plant). This species grows in 

 rubbish by roadsides, in dry waste grounds, 

 and on commons, flowering from July to Sep- 

 tember. The stem is bushy, branching from 

 the bottom, bluntly quadrangular, clothed with 

 fine woolly pubescence. The shape and size 

 of the leaves varies; the flowers are white, in 

 dense convex whorls. The whole herb has a 

 white or hoary aspect, and a very bitter, not 

 unpleasantly aromatic, flavour. Its extract is 

 a popular remedy for coughs and asthmatic 

 complaints; hence also the celebrity of hore- 

 hound-tea among the common people. Bees 

 collect honey from the flowers ; but the herb 

 is not eaten by any of the domestic animals. 



Any common soil will suit these plants, and 

 they are readily increased by divisions of the 

 roots, or by seeds. (Eng. Flor. vol. iii. p. 103 ; 

 Paxton's 7/o,'. Diet.) 



HORN. A hard substance, growing on the 

 heads of various animals, which partakes of 

 the chemical nature of the cartilaginous part 

 of bone ; it consists chiefly of albumen, with 

 some gelatin and a trace of phosphate of lime. 



The horn of the ox is composed of an elon- 

 gation of the frontal bone, covered by a hard 

 coating, originally of a gelatinous nature. Its 

 base is a process or continuation of the frontal 

 bone, and it is, like that bone, hollow and 

 divided into numerous compartments or cells, 

 all of them communicating with each other, 



