200 



On the Chemical and Natural History of Lupuline. By M. 

 J. Personne. Translated by George Lawson, LL.D.,* 

 Professor of Chemistry in Dalhousie College, Halifax, 

 Nova Scotia. (Plate II.) 



Note hy Translator.— Qow^i^ex'mg the great importance of 

 the hop in an economical point of view, we might expect 

 our scientific and manufacturing works to contain a some- 

 what satisfactory statement of the chemical products of the 

 hop, and of the nature and development of the remarkable 

 organ by which these products are secreted. This, however, 

 is far from being the case ; and intelligent brewers in 

 Canada, puzzled by the contradictory statements that have 

 been put forth, have frequently applied to me for informa- 

 tion on this as on other scientific points connected with 

 their art. I have therefore thought that a translation of 

 M. Personne's Memoir, published some years ago in the 

 " Annales des Sciences Naturelles," might not be without 

 its use. In some of its bearings, the subject is of much 

 interest in a strictly scientific point of view. It is obvious, 

 likewise, that an acquaintance with the chemical properties 

 of Lupuline is important, not only to the brewer, but to the 

 hop-grower, the exporter, the manufacturer of hop- extract, 

 and, indeed, to every one who has to handle an article so 

 prone to change its character, and, consequently, its com- 

 mercial value, from apparently trifling causes. The Ca- 

 nadian brewers having a favourable grain -market, and an 

 unlimited supply of excellent water in the great lakes, 

 almost entirely devoid of organic matter, have the means 

 of manufacturing excellent beer. But much of the hops 

 used requires to be imported from England. Canadian 

 hops are grown to some slight extent at Kingston, more 

 abundantly about Picton, and Belleville, C. W., and espe- 

 cially farther to the westward ; but the best qualities of 

 hops are always imported. The Canadian hop gives greater 



flowering period, to the above law, occurs in the bigeneric hybrid of the 

 Rhododendron Chamcedstiis, and the Menziesia empetrifolia — the Bryanthus erectus 

 (Graham), inasmuch as I have found apparently well-developed pollen grains 

 in the anther-cases, yet I have repeatedly failed in fertilising this plant with 

 its own pollen, or that of either parent, 



* Kead before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, 10th March 1864. 



