HOP-BINE. 55 



give any particular description of this plant. The 

 hop is indigenous in many parts of Europe, and is 

 to be seen sometimes in England, as well as in other 

 countries, growing spontaneously in the hedges. In 

 this state it clings to the trunks of trees : when cul- 

 tivated it is trained to twine round poles placed for 

 the purpose, and in a spiral form often reaches to 

 the height of twenty or thirty feet. The fibres of 

 these long stalks or bines are capable of being manu- 

 factured into strong serviceable cloth. 



The Swedish manner of obtaining this material is 

 thus described in the above-mentioned Transactions. 

 A number of hop stalks, equal in bulk to the same 

 quantity of flax plants as usually yield a pound of 

 flax, were gathered in autumn. These were kept in 

 water during the whole of the winter. In March 

 they were taken out, dried in a stove, and prepared 

 by a similar process to that which flax undergoes. 

 The prepared filaments weighed nearly a pound, and 

 proved fine, soft, and white : they were spun and 

 woven into six ells of fine strong cloth. 



The Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. 

 some years ago turned their attention to this subject, 

 believing in the practicability of converting a sub- 

 stance, now thrown aside as refuse, into a useful 

 material of domestic consumption. To promote this 

 desirable object, premiums were offered for the suc- 

 cessful manufacture of cloth made from the stalks of 

 this plant. In several volumes of their Transactions 

 accounts of different preparations are to be found; 

 one of the most successful of these attempts 

 detailed in the ninth volume. 



The stalks were cut in lengths of two or three feet, 

 and put into a copper containing a ley, in which linen 

 had been previously bleached. The pieces were 

 boiled in the mixture till the rind separated easily. 

 After this process the fibres were prepared in a man- 



