30 THE HOP. 



female flowers are borne at the base of these scales, 

 which are arranged in close clusters on a short stem. 

 When in blossom, the young hop will be found to be 

 a collection of very simple flowers, each consisting of 

 a single pistil surrounded by a sort of membranous 

 covering, and one of these is placed at the base of a 

 small scale, which, as the hop ripens, increases very 

 much in size, and collectively becomes the most con- 

 spicuous part of the cluster of fruit or hops, Fig. 9. 

 The fruit, botanically speaking, is the ripened pistil, 

 which is a small nut that incloses a single seed. Upon 

 the inner side of the scales, and around the fruit, are 



FIG. 11. FEMALE CLUSTER, FIG. 12. SINGLE FEMALE 



NEWLY SET. FLOWER. 



6, Hop cluster. , Pistils; b, scales; c, single seed with 



its scales. 



found numerous yellow grains which are peculiar 

 glands; and, though they are produced only in the pis- 

 tillate plant, they are often incorrectly called the pollen. 

 These grains are called lupulin, and sometimes "lup- 

 ulinic glands" and "flour of the hop." 



The female flowers are in the form of a catkin, 

 having each pair of flowers supported by a bract, which 

 is ovate-acute, tubular at base. Sepal solitary, obtuse, 

 smaller than the bract, and enfolding the ovary. Ovary 

 roundish, compressed; stigmas (the terminals of the 

 pistils) two, long subulate, downy. The bracts enlarge 

 into a persistent catkin (hop), each bract enclosing a 



