2 HISTORY, BOTANY, ECONOMIC USES, 



amongst other ground, " land set with saffron or hops ; " and 

 by an Act of Parliament of the first year of James I., anno 

 1603, c. 18, it appears that hops were then produced in 

 abundance in England. 



In the oldest book I know about hops (Eeynolde Scot's 

 ' Perfite Platforme of a Hoppe Garden '), dated 1574, and 

 printed in black letter, with many prefaces terminating in 

 inverted pyramids of type, Kent is spoken of as the county 

 of hops. The system of cultivation appears to have little 

 changed since then ; and the book, if it were not written in 

 the style of an Act of Parliament, and interlarded with moral 

 reflections and allusions to every poet and orator of ancient 

 times, might have been written in the present day. Yet 

 hops, at that date, were but of recent cultivation. For ages, 

 while our ancestors were wont to flavour their ale with ground 

 ivy, and honey, and various bitters, a weed called " hop " had 

 been known about the hedges of England ; but no one 

 thought to cultivate it for brewing until the beginning of 

 the sixteenth century. Some say the cultivated plant came 

 first from Flanders, where it was certainly used before our 

 brewers knew its virtues. In France, hop gardens are very 

 ancient. Mention is made of them in some of the oldest 

 records, though what the hops were used for does not appear. 

 In England it had many enemies to contend with at first. 



The leafy cone-like catkins or imbricated heads (strobili) 

 of the common hop (Humulus lupulus, Lin.), a dicecious 

 plant, with a perennial root, have long been an important 

 article of commerce, and the culture and trade are becoming 

 more and more extensive. The scales are scattered over with 

 resinous spherical glands, which are easily rubbed off, and 



