HUMUL^US LUPULUS. 
81 
There is but one species of the hop, but the cultivators of the female 
plant reikon three different varieties, viz. the long and square garlick, 
the long white, and the oval hop, all of which are indifferently 
cultivated.* 
The cultivation of this plant was introduced into England from 
Flanders about three hundred years ago ; and the strobiles were first 
used as an ingredient for preserving malt liquor, in the latter part of 
the reign of Henry VIII. 
The root sends up many long, flexible, angular, rough, striated 
stems, which often rise to the height of twenty feet, and support 
themselves by twining round upright bodies ; the leaves are oppo- 
site in pairs, petiolate, cordate, serrated, entire, or lobed, of a dark 
green on the upper surface : both the leaves and petioles are rough, 
with minute prickles ; at the base of each footstalk are two cordate, 
entire, reflected, smooth stipules ; the male and female flowers are 
qn distinct plants, axillary or terminal, and furnished with bracteas. 
The female plants are in solitary, ovate, pendulous cones or strobiles, 
composed of membranous scales of a pale yellowish-green colour, 
tubular at the base, and two-flowered, containing the germen, sup- 
porting two styles, crowned with awl-shaped downy stigmas; the ger- 
men becomes a llattish round seed of a brownish colour, surrounded 
with a sharp riui, and compressed at the tip. The male flowers are 
in drooping panicles of a pale yellowish colour ; the calyx consists 
of five serrated leaflets ; there is no corolla ; the filaments are five, 
short, and support oblong anthers, opening at the apex by two 
pores. 
The strobiles or cones of the female plants are ripe the latter end 
of August or beginning of September, at which, season the plants 
are cut about three feet from the ground, the poles on which they 
have twined pulled up, and the strobiles carefully picked off one by 
one. The most convenient mode of picking them is into a large 
square frame of wood, called a bin, with a cloth hanging on tenter 
hooks within it, to receive the hops as they are picked. The hops 
should be picked very clean, J. e. free from leaves and stalks. If the 
weather be hot, there should no more poles be drawn than can be 
picked in an hour, when the hops should be immediately carried to 
the kiln to dry. Great care and nicety is requisite in regulating 
the proper heat of the kiln, which must not be too fierce at first; 
and in order to prevent them from drying too fast, some kilns have 
» Miller. 
VOL. n. 
N 
