Hoorn, Latinized as Horna or Hornum, has existed at least from the first part of the 14th century, as it is mentioned in a document of the year 1311, five years earlier than the date usually assigned for its foundation. It was at Hoorn in 1416 that the first great net was made for the herring fishery, an industry which long proved an abundant source of wealth to the town. During the 15th century Hoorn shared in the troubles occasioned by the different factions; in 1518 it was molested by Groote Pier, and in 1566 and 1567 by Henry of Brederode. The Spanish forces entered the town in 1569; but in 1572 it cast in its lot with the States of the Netherlands, and four years later it assisted in defeating the duke of Alva’s admiral, Count de Bossu, who remained for some time a prisoner within its walls. The riot against the burgomaster Langewagen in 1672 was a matter of purely local interest. A company of commerce and navigation M as formed at Hoorn in 1720 ; but on the other hand, in 1795, the admiralty offices and storehouses were removed to Medemblik. The English under Abercromby took possession of the town in 1799, and in 1811 it suffered severely from the French. Among the celebrities of Hoorn are William Schouten, who discovered in 1616 the passage round Cape Horn or Hoorn, as he called it in honour of his birth place ; Abel Janszoon Tasman, whose fame is associated with Tasmania ; and Jan Pieters Koen, the founder of Batavia.
HOP (German, Hopfen; French, koublon), Humulus Lupulus, L., the sole representative of its genus, an her baceous twining plant, belonging to the natural order Can- nabinacece, which is by some botanists included in the larger group called Urticaccce by Endlicher. It is of com mon occurrence in hedges and thickets in the southern counties of England, but is believed not to be native in Scotland. On the Continent it is distributed from Greece to Scandinavia, and extends through the Caucasus and Central Asia to the Altai Mountains. It is common, but doubtfully indigenous, in the northern and western States of North America, and has been introduced into Brazil, Australia, and the Himalayas.
It is a dioecious perennial plant, producing annually several long twining roughish striated stems, which twist from left to right, are often 15 to 20 feet long, and climb freely over hedges and bushes. The leaves are stalked, opposite, 3-5 lobed, and coarsely serrate, and bear a general resemblance to those of the vine, but are, as well as the whole plant, rough to the touch ; the upper leaves are sometimes scarcely divided, or quite entire. The stipules are interpetiolar, each consisting of two lateral ones united, or rarely with the tips free. The mile inflorescence (fig. 1, A) forms a panicle ; the flowers consist of a small greenish five -parted perianth (a) enclosing five stamens, whose anthers (6) open by terminal slits. The female inflorescence (fig. 1, B) is less conspicuous in the yoang state. The catkin or strobile consists of a number of small acute bracts, with two sessile ovaries at their base, each subtended by a rounded bractlet (c). Both the bracts and bractlets enlarge greatly during the development of the ovary, and form, when fully grown, the membranous scales of the strobile (fig. 2, a). The bracts can then only be distinguished from the bract- Jets by being rather more acute and more strongly veined. The perianth (fig. 1, d) is short, cup-shaped, undivided, and closely applied to the ovary, which it ultimately encloses. In the young strobile the two purple hairy styles (e) of each ovary project beyond the bracts. The ovary contains a single exalbuminous seed, containing a spirally-coiled embryo (fig. 2, I).
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Fig. 1.—Male (A) and Female (B) Inflorescence of the Hop.
The ovary and the base of the bracts are covered with a yellowish powder, consisting of minute sessile grains (see vol. iv. p. 91, fig. 48) called lupulin or lupulinic glands (see vol. i. p. 381). These glands (fig. 2, c) are stated by Stoddart to be from 77^ to T -J -$ inch in diameter, like flat tened subovate little saucers in shape, and attached to a short pedicel ; by the expansion of the central portion during growth their apex ultimately becomes convex instead of concave. The upper or hemispherical portion consists of a delicate continuous membrane, and the lower part of tabular polyhedric cells. The stalk is not perceptible in the gland as found in commerce. When fresh the gland is seen to be filled with a yellowish or dark brown liquid ; this on drying contracts in bulk and forms a central mass. The contents of these glands, according to Lermer, are chiefly wax (myricylic palmitate) and resins, one of which is crystalline and unites with bases ; with these the bitter acid of hops is present in small proportion. It is to these lupulinic glands that the medicinal properties of the hop are chiefly due. By careful sifting, about 1 oz. may be ob tained from 1 Ib of hops, but the East Kent variety is said to yield more than the Sussex hops.
In hop gardens a few male plants, usually three or four to an acre, are sometimes planted, that number being deemed sufficient to fertilize the female flowers. It is stated, how ever, that the female plant produces sufficient male flowers for self-fertilization (Royle). The blossoms are produced in August, and the strobiles are fit for gathering from the beginning of September to the middle of October, accord ing to the weather.
