■I-'" DRTiCACE^. [Humulus. 



E. Med. — Frequent in moist thickets about Ryde, in St. John's wood, on the 

 Dover, in Quarr copse, and along the Newport road, &c., but not very commonly 

 in flower; in this state the male plant, which is more frequent than the female, 

 may be gathered by St. John's tollgiite, in Kingston copse near Niton, at Arreton 

 and other places. In the boggy woods between Yarbridge and Yaverland, 

 copiously. Abundant all along the Uiidercliff', where I have gathered the female 

 plant with ripe strobiles. Very common about Godshill, 1844. Abundant in a 

 hedge between Kerne farm and Alverston mill, where it is overrun with Cuscuta 

 europa3a. The female is abundant about Steephill, and near Niton on the way 

 from the Sandvock hotel to St. Catherine's point. Dr. Bell-Sailer. 



IV. Med. — Most abundantly in thickets. Sec, about Brook house, 1844, where, 

 and at Wolverton by Shorwell, it may be seen twining around every tree, and 

 presenting the appearance of a natural hop-garden. Plentiful about Freshwater, 

 at Norton, Yarmouth, &c. Common about Newport, Chale, and indeed in most 

 other parts of the island. 



S(ejns herbaceous, long, twisted, hexangular, reddish, rough along the angles 

 with hard scabrous points and minute deflexed bristles or aculei, and twining 

 over trees and bushes to a great length in a direction from East to West. Leaves* 

 opposite, on long, scabrous, angular, mostly contorted petioles, which are chan- 

 nelled above, rotuudato-cordate, various in shape, for the most part 3-lobed, the 

 lowermost very large and 5-lobed, the highest often ovate and undivided ; dull 

 deep green, beneath paler and sprinkled with small, yellow, resinous globules, pli- 

 cato-rugose, harsh and rough to the touch, coarsely and sharply mucronato-ser- 

 rate, their lobes cuspidato-acuminate. Stipules opposite, in pairs between each 

 two leafstalks, which they in some degree connect together, ovate or ovato-cordate, 

 downy, many-ribbed, bifid and acuminate, often reflexed. Staminale flowers in 

 lax, drooping, panicled, axillary and downy racemes, which are mostly shorter 

 than the leaves; pale yellowish green. Perianth in 5 downy, unequal, concave, 

 obtuse segments. Stamens 6, opposite the segments of the perianth, arranged 

 round their point of union each on a glandular base; anthers on very shoTt fila- 

 ments, oblong, greenish, 2-lobed and 2-celled, somewhat awned, bursting on their 

 inner face just beneath the apex, leaving the cells after the discharge of the pollen 

 like two parallel inflated sacs or tubes. Bracts at the base of the pedicels and 

 branches of the panicle, unequal in size and number, ovate or lanceolate. I can 

 trace no rudiments of an ovarium in the staminate flowers as we find in Tamus, 

 &c. Pistillate flowers in small roundish or ovate catkins (strobiles), which are 

 either on solitary, opposite, axillary, bracteated and downy peduncles, or in more 

 or less compound, axillary and terminal, panicled racemes. Floral bracts (scales) 

 closely imbricated, purplish brown or greenish, broadly ovate, acuminate, lax and 

 spreading at the tips, many-ribbed, 2-flowered and downy, much enlarged after 

 blossoming. Perianth none, except a persistent scale or bractlet, like the others 

 but much smaller, enclosing the greenish, 2-lobed, compressed germen by a fold 

 at its base. Style scarcely any, inserted on the summit of the germen between its 

 lobes ; stigmas 2, subulate, downy, spreading and recurved. Nut (achenium ?) 

 scarcely so large as hemp-.seed, erect, subglobose, acutely margined all round, 

 enveloped in a loose membranous tunic opened at the summit and sprinkled with 

 re^sinous grains, itself embraced by a fold at the base of each now much enlarged 

 bract, that bears but one and often no perfect seed, both flowers proving abortive. 



When full grown the strobiles of the wild Hop seldom exceed an inch in 

 length, but contain abundance of the peculiar princi]ile (humuline) that makes the 

 cultivated plant so valuable, and which is found chiefly on the inner surface of the 

 floral bracts at their base, and on the loose covering of the seed, in the form of 

 transparent, yellow, roundish and angular grains, of a fine aromatic odour. The 



* The larva of the comma butterfly {Vanessa C-album) feeds on the leaves of 

 the Hop, as also on those of the Currant and Nettle. Though a rare insect in 

 the Isle of Wight, I have seen specimens captured by my friend Miss Lucas at 

 Sandown. 



