134 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
it has no claim to be considered native ; and though widely distributed 
in Ireland, the authors of the “ Cybele Hibernica” “ believe it to be a 
relic of ancient cultivation in all the localities where it now occurs.” 
England, [Scotland, Ireland. ] Perennial. Late Summer. 
Stems herbaceous, tough, angular, twisted, twining, often attaining 
a length of several yards. Leaves opposite, stalked, palmately veined, 
cordate, commonly with 5 lobes, the smaller leaves with 3; lobes 
divided about half-way down, ovate, acuminate or cuspidate, coarsel 
serrate or crenate-serrate: more rarely the leaves are cade 
ovate, acuminate, deeply cordate and coarsely serrate. Stipules 
united between the leaf-stalks so as to appear 2 instead of 4. Flowers 
diccious. Male flowers in axillary and terminal lax panicles with 
divaricate branches: bracteoles resembling the stipules, but smaller: 
perianth segments slightly unequal, oval-oblong, concave, yellowish- 
green, with scarious margins: anthers longer than their filaments, 
yellowish-green, apiculate. Female flowers in small headlike spikes 
in axillary or terminal panicles, the spikes sometimes solitary on 
axillary peduncles: perianth a small scale: stigmas 2, elongated. In 
fruit the scales of the perianth become greatly enlarged, and the spike 
becomes a large conelike catkin, with ovate or roundish-ovate, blunt, 
yellowish or sometimes reddish scales. Achene rarely ripened (per- 
haps from the male and female plants not always growing together), 
about the size of rape-seed, roundish, apiculate, with a loose membranous 
pericarp, sprinkled, as well as the now scarious base of the perianth, 
with yellowish resinous dots. Leaves deep green, scabrous with small 
tubercles, some of which are produced into minute prickly bristles; 
angles of the stem, petioles, and undersides of the veins of the leaves, 
with small reflexed bristles, and underside of the leaves sprinkled 
with small resinous dots like those on the perianth, scale, and fruit. 
Common Hop. 
French, Houblon grimpant. German, Gemeiner Hopfen. 
The hop is familiar to us all in cultivation, but is not so well known as a wild 
plant of our hedges. It is, however, to be seen in many localities, and is always an 
attractive object. It was well known to the Romans, and is mentioned by Pliny 
under the name of Lupus salictarius. It gradually spread through Europe during the 
Middle Ages, but was not cultivated in England till the year 1524, when it was 
introduced from Flanders, though not without violent opposition, petitions against it 
being presented to Parliament, in which it was stigmatised as a “ wicked weed, that 
would spoil the drink and endanger the people.” From the name, which seems to 
be derived from the Saxon hoppan, to climb, some have inferred that it must bea 
native plant; but it bears the same name in Holland, whence it was brought to this 
country. William King, in his “ Art of Cookery,” remarks that “ heresy and hops 
came in together ;” while an old popular rhyme records that 
“« Hops, carp, pickerel, and beer, 
Came into England all in one year.” 
