352 THE HOP CROP. 



shire. The produce of each district has peculiar charac- 

 teristic properties, dependent mainly upon the geological 

 conditions of the soil in which they are grown, and upon 

 the varieties of the plant cultivated, such properties deter- 

 mining their market values, and also to a great extent the 

 uses to which they are applied in the brewery the finer 

 qualities, the produce of a rich soil and a congenial climate, 

 being greatly sought after for the manufacture of the 

 higher class of ales, especially those intended for exporta- 

 tion; the others, of an inferior quality, being used for 

 brewing the coloured beers and ales intended for home 

 consumption. 



The HOP, as lias been already observed, belongs to 

 the natural order URTICE^E, forming the genus HUMULUS, 

 of which it is the only member, and being known by 

 its specific name, Humulus lupulus. 1 It is a coarse- 

 growing, twining plant, indigenous to this county, in 

 common with the north of Europe, in most countries 

 of which it is now met with also in a cultivated state, 

 somewhat altered perhaps in its general appearance and 

 growth. It also grows equally well in North America 

 and the Australian colonies, in which it has lately been 

 introduced, and bids fair, in the course of a few years, to 

 form an important article of colonial exportation. The 

 same peculiarity exists with the hop as with the hemp, 

 the plants being dioecious, the male and female flowers 

 being on separate plants, thereby necessitating a peculiar 

 cultivation, differing materially from that of our ordinary 

 plants. The plants, under favourable conditions, grow to 



1 The name Humulus, according to Hooker and London, is derived from 

 humus, fresh earth, the hop growing only in rich soils. The specific name 

 Lupulus, Loudon observes in his Encyclopedia, is a contraction of Lupus 

 salictarius, the name by which it was, according to Pliny, formerly called, 

 because it grew among the willows, to which, by twining round them and 

 choking them up, it proved as destructive as the wolf to the flock. Lindley 

 considers that lupulus, or little wolf, is indicative of its power of exhausting 

 the soil in which it grows. 



