THE HOP PLANT. 33 



repeated sprinkling or dipping in water. In any case, if 

 the cuttings cannot be set at once, it is advisable to im- 

 naerse them in water for twelve hours previous to planting 

 them. 



When they have to be sent to a considerable distance 

 the cuttings should be packed in boxes lined with damp 

 moss. Thus treated, they will stand journeys of several 

 weeks' duration without injury. There is little need, how- 

 ever, for special worry about them, for Schoffl reports having 

 sent cuttings, in the dry state and without any sort of pack- 

 ing, from Saaz to Egypt, which were found in good condition 

 on arrival. In any case care must be taken to preserve them 

 from mechanical injury during transit, and it is also import- 

 ant to take cuttings that are destined for shipment at a time 

 when the eyes are still unawakened from their winter's sleep, 

 because when growth has commenced they are the portions 

 most liable to damage in transit. Occasionally, though not 

 often, cuttings for shipment are taken in autumn, planted at. 

 once in well-manured ground to root, and only sent away 

 in the ensuing spring ; this practice, however, has nothing 

 special to recommend it. 



Eeproduction of hops from underground runners' is a 

 method rarely employed in practice, and, like the possibility 

 of producing new plants from aerial portions of the bine, or 

 even from buds, is of merely theoretical interest. 



Varieties of the Hop. 



There has been no lack of attempts to thoroughly classify 

 the existing varieties of hops, Braungart, in particular, having 

 bestowed special attention on this question^ ; nevertheless 



^ Die Varietaten des Hopfens (with 26 photo, plates, natural size). J. G. 

 Wolfe, Preising, 1881. 



3 



