Spec. Plant Willd. iv. 769. Cl. 22. Ord.5. Dioecia Pentandria. Nat. ord. Urticeae. G. 1795. Male. Calyx five leaved. Corolla none. ----- Female. Calyx one-leafed, obliquely spreading, entire.

Corolla none. Styles two. Seed one, within a leafy calyx. Species 1. H. Lupulus. The Hop. Eng. Bot. t. 427. Smith's

Flor. Brit. 1077. Bigelows Amer. Med. Bot. iii. 163. Officinal. Lupulus, Lond. Humuli strobili, Edin. Strobili siccati, Dub. The Strobiles of the Hop.

Syn. Houblon grimpant (F.), Hopfen (G.), Lupulo (I.), Hoblon (S).

The hop is an indigenous perennial plant, growing in hedges, and flowering in July. It is very abundantly cultivated in Kent, Essex, Surrey, and Suffolk : and the strobiles are picked about the end of August or the beginning of September.2 The root sends up many long, striated, angled, rough, flexible stems, which support themselves by twining round upright bodies in a spiral direction from left to right. The leaves are opposite, in pairs, petiolate, heart-shaped, serrated, entire, or lobed, and of a dark green colour on the upper disc. Both

1 Einhof, who analysed barley both in the unripe and ripe state, found that 3840 parts of barley, in grain, afforded 430 of a volatile matter, 720 husk, and 2690 of meal; and from the same quantity of barley-meal, he obtained 360 of volatile matter, 44 albumen, 200 saccharine matter, 176 mucilage, 9 phosphate of lime, with some albumen, 135 gluten, 260 husk, with some gluten and starch, and 2580 of starch: 76 parts were lost in the analysis. When this meal is macerated in alcohol it yields a yellow-coloured, acrid, thick oil, which is supposed to give the peculiar flavour to spirits from raw grain, and to be lost in malting.- Thorn-son's Chymistry, v. 254.

2 The culture of the hop-plant was introduced into England from Flanders in 1524, and the strobiles were first used for preserving English beer in the latter part of the reign of Henry VIII.; but the prejudice against them was very considerable, and the city of London, a hundred years afterwards, petitioned the parliament to prevent their use. There are now, however, severe penalties inflicted on brewers who use any other bitter for preserving their beer. In 1830, the number of acres cultivated with hops in Great Britain, were 46,727; the average quantity of hops grown is about 20,000,000 of pounds, the leaves and petioles are scabrous, with minute prickles; and at the base of each leaf-stalk are two interfoliaceous, entire, reflected, smooth stipules. The flowers are axillary, and furnished with bracteas : the males are yellowish white, in panicles, and drooping; the females, which are on distinct plants, are in solitary cones or strobiles, ovate, and pendulous; composed of membranous scales of a pale greenish colour, tubular from being rolled in at the base, and two-flowered, each containing one round, flattish seed of a bay-brown colour, surrounded with a sharp rim, and compressed at the tip.

At the proper season, while the strobiles are yet scarcely ripe, the plants are cut about three feet from the ground, the poles on which they are twined pulled up, and the strobiles carefully picked off one by one. Those that are over-ripe or defective are separated from those that are ripe enough, and both kinds are carried to the kiln as soon as possible after they are picked. The heat of the kiln requires to be regulated with great nicety; and in order to prevent them from drying too fast, many kilns have two floors, on the uppermost of which the greener hops are laid, and gradually dried before being-brought to support the heat of the lower floor.1 Charcoal is the fuel usually employed; other kinds of fuel injuring the flavour of the hops. , The strobiles are considered sufficiently dried when they become crisp; but they acquire a degree of toughness and tenacity before they are bagged, from being laid in heaps in the storehouses. Five pounds of moist or under-ripe hops make one pound only when taken from the kiln.

The best hops are brought to market in fine canvass sacks called "pockets," each of which contains about 1 1/4 cwt. of hops.

Qualities,-Hops have a strong, peculiar, fragrant, sub-narcotic odour, and a very bitter, aromatic, astringent taste. They have a pale, greenish yellow hue, appear like thin transparent veined leaves; and although not tough, yet are difficult to pulverize. Sir J. E. Smith and M. Planche had noticed a yellow powder which is secreted by the scales of the hop : and some experiments by Dr. A. W. Ives of New York proved, that the active properties of the strobiles reside in that substance, which forms one sixth part only of their weight, and which is easily separated, by merely sifting in a fine sieve. Dr. Ives named it lupulin. It has the peculiar flavour of hops, and under the microscope seems to resemble the pollen of plants, consisting of globules filled with a yellow fluid. He found in 120 grains of lupulin five grains of tannin, ten of extractive, eleven of bitter principle, twelve of wax, thirty-six l This is the case at Farnham in Surrey. See Stevenson's Survey, 363.

of resin, and forty-six of woody fibre (lignin). MM. Chevalier and Payen obtained 26 parts of a peculiar bitter principle, 105 of resin, and traces of gum, volatile and fixed oil, some azotized matter, and various salts. It is probable, that this bitter principle is the active agent in the hop. Hops, from which all the lupulin is separated, yield an extract, devoid of the virtues of the hop.1 The properties of the strobiles are extracted by boiling water, or alcohol, or ether. The watery infusion has a pale straw-colour, is rendered muddy by the mineral acids; alkalies deepen its colour; it strikes an olive with sulphate of iron; is precipitated by alcohol, solution of superacetate of lead, nitrate of silver, and tartarized antimony; and, when rubbed with magnesia or lime, a rod dipped in hydrochloric acid discovers the presence of ammonia. The ethereal tincture, when evaporated on water, leaves a pellicle of greenish, intensely bitter resin, and deposits some extractive. By distillation in water, hops yield a volatile aromatic oil.

From these experiments they appear to contain resin, extractive, volatile oil, tannin, an ammoniacal salt, and what has been termed the bitter principle.

Medical properties and uses. -Hops are narcotic, tonic, diuretic; and, externally applied, anodyne, and discutient. Their use as a preservative of beer has been long known. They are also said to possess the power of procuring sleep in the delirium of fever, and in mania, when used as a pillow; and owing to this effect having taken place in the case of George the Third, their efficacy as a general narcotic, when introduced into the stomach, has been investigated.2 Dr. Maton observed, that, besides allaying pain and producing sleep, the preparations of hops reduce the frequency of the pulse, and increase its firmness in a very direct manner. One drachm of the tincture and four grains of the extract given once in six hours reduced the pulsations from ninety-six to sixty in twenty-four hours.3 He found the extract exceedingly efficacious in allaying the pain of articular rheumatism; but our own experience has not afforded us sufficient proof of its utility as a sedative; and Dr. Bigsby's4 experiments have lessened very much the confidence practitioners were disposed to give to it. An ointment compounded with the powder of the hop and lard is recommended by Mr. Freake as an anodyne application to cancerous sores.

We have seen a fomentation

1 Annals of Phil. p. 194.

2 De Roche, De Humuli Lupuli Virions medicis.

3 Observations on the Humulus Lupidus, etc. by A. Freak,

4 Vide London Medical Repository, vol. v. p. 97.

of it afford relief in painful swellings and tumours. It may be given in the form of powder, infusion, tincture, or extract. The dose of the powder is from grs. iij. to Э j.; of the infusion, which is made with ss. of the hops and O j. of boiling water, f jss., with f ss. of cinnamon water, may be given twice or thrice a day.

Officinal preparations.-Extractum Lupuli, L. Infusum Lupuli, L. Extractum Humuli Lupuli, D. Tinctura Lupuli, L. Tinc-tura Humuli, E. D.