12 HOPS. 



blooms are produced by separate plants. Jussieu ranks the 

 hop as a member of the nettle family (Urticacem). Both the 

 male and the female plants are perennials, and possess a 

 powerful rootstock, with an extensive system of roots 

 spreading deep into the earth. The female plant alone is 

 of any direct value in cultivation, the former practice of 

 planting a few male specimens in each hop garden being 

 only followed for a special purpose. The male plant is 

 always less robust in development than the female. In 

 autumn, as soon as vegetation is arrested, the aerial portions 

 of the plant die down ; and in the ensuing spring new 

 shoots are thrown out from the buds on the underground 

 stems that have stood the winter, or else adventitious shoots 

 appear, the young stems in either event manifesting a tend- 

 ency to cling to some fixed support as soon as they attain 

 a length of about 12 inches. If no such support is at hand 

 a circular movement of the growing tip of the shoot will 

 be noticeable. This movement takes place from right to 

 left, and is characteristic of the hop, since all other twining 

 plants grow in left-handed spirals round any support pre- 

 sented to them. The smaller the diameter of the support 

 provided for the hop the smaller the " pitch " of the spiral, 

 and vice versd. The bine will not twine on horizontal sup- 

 ports, and if left to itself on the ground, without any support 

 at all, presents a destitute appearance. According to Fru- 

 wirth, when one of two stems, otherwise equally treated in 

 every respect, was provided with a support and the other 

 left without one, the difference in length between them at 

 the end of twenty days amounted to 25 inches, the first one 

 measuring 91 inches and the other 66 inches. It therefore 

 follows that facility for growth in an upward direction is 

 an indispensable condition for normal development in hops. 



