Ah, quite alone these April days
It blossoms to evoke my praise;
And hyacinthine scents are shed
To bless and cheer me, hither led.
Upon this sheltered, upland knoll,
At early dawn I often stroll;
White clusters edged with crimson hue
Lie here, impearled with crystal dew.
The leaves, like memories, evergreen,
The blooms, like truth, of purest sheen;
The cup within, like some fair breast
Where holy thoughts can surely rest.
How worthy of its meek renown!
Delightful gem for beauty’s crown.
O’er it with joy can poet brood;
It breathes of God in solitude.
—George Bancroft Griffith.
THE MOUNTAIN LAUREL.
(_Kalmia latifolia._)
About the middle of the eighteenth century an enthusiastic botanist and
collector, Peter Kalm, gathered specimens in America of a beautiful
plant which he carried back to the gardens of Europe and also to his
preceptor, the naturalist Linnaeus. In the year 1753 Linnaeus named the
plant, honoring his pupil by giving to the plant the generic name
Kalmia. He also gave it the specific name latifolia, referring to its
broad leaves.
The genus Kalmia includes six known species, five of which are natives
of eastern North America and one a native of Cuba. They are all
beautiful shrubs, varying in height from a few inches to several feet.
The plant of our illustration is a native of the eastern portion of the
United States, where it grows in sandy or rocky woods and is more
abundant in mountainous regions. This shrub, which grows to a maximum
height of twenty feet, is a superb object early in June, when it is
covered with corymbs of rather large pink or pinkish-white flowers and
numerous evergreen leaves.
Easily cultivated and highly ornamental, it has been introduced into the
greenhouses and gardens of this and European countries.
In spite of the beauty of this plant, it has a bad reputation, for its
leaves are narcotic and poisonous to some animals. “Even the intelligent
grouse, hard pressed with hunger when deep snow covers much of their
chosen food, are sometimes found dead and their crops distended by these
leaves.”
We cannot show the characteristics of this plant in any better way than
to quote from “Nature’s Garden,” where we find the following passage:
“All the Kalmias resort to a most ingenious device for compelling insect
visitors to carry their pollen from blossom to blossom. A newly opened
flower has its stigma erected where the incoming bee must leave on its
sticky surface the four minute orange-like grains carried from the
anther of another flower on the hairy underside of her body. Now, each
anther is tucked away in one of the ten little pockets of the
saucer-shaped blossom and the elastic filaments are strained upward like
a bow. After hovering above the nectary, the bee has only to descend
towards it, when her leg, touching against one of the hair-triggers of
the spring trap, pop! goes the little anther-gun, discharging pollen
from its bores as it flies upward. So delicately is the mechanism
adjusted, the slightest jar or rough handling releases the anthers; but,
on the other hand, should insects be excluded by a net stretched over
the plant, the flowers will fall off and wither without firing off their
pollen-charged guns. At least this is true in the great majority of
tests. As in the case of hot-house flowers, no fertile seed is set when
nets keep away the laurel’s benefactors.”
Many of our readers reside near the home of the Mountain Laurel and can
examine the interesting features of this beautiful plant in Nature’s own
garden. Those that do this will be well repaid.
Violets stir and arbutus waits,
Claytonia’s rosy bells unfold;
Dandelion through the meadow makes
A royal road, with seals of gold.
—Helen Hunt Jackson.
[Illustration: ]
Description of Plate.—A, staminate (male) inflorescence; B, pistillate
(female) inflorescence; C, fruiting branch; 1, staminate flower; 2,
perigone; 3, stamen; 4, open anther; 5, pollen; 6, pistillate catkin;
7, 8, 9, pistillate flowers; 10, scales; 11, 12, 13, scales and
flowers; 14, 15, fruit; 16, 17, 19, seed; 20, resin gland (lupulin).
HOPS.
(_Humulus lupulus L._)
“A land of hops and poppy-mingled fields.”
—Tennyson: Aylmer’s Field.
The hop plant is a creeping perennial with several stems or branches
attaining a length of fifteen to twenty-five feet. It has numerous
opposite three to five lobed, palmately veined, coarsely toothed leaves
with long leaf stalks (petioles). Flowers unisexual, that is staminate
and pistillate flowers separate, either on separate plants (dioecious)
or upon different branches of the same plant (monoecious). Flowers
insignificant in loose, drooping axillary panicles. Fruit a cone-like
catkin usually designated a strobile.
The hop has been called the northern vine. It is found in a wild state
throughout Europe, excepting the extreme north, and extends east to the
Caucasus and through central Asia. It is a handsome plant and not
infrequently used as an arbor plant. The lower or basal leaves are very
large, gradually decreasing in size toward the apex. H. lupulus is the
only representative of the genus.
It is rather remarkable that a plant so widely distributed and familiar
should not have been known to the Greeks and Romans. Its cultivation in
Europe dates back to the eighth and ninth centuries. It was, however,
not extensively cultivated until about the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries.
The word hop (German, Hopfen) is of very uncertain origin. According to
some authorities it is traceable to the old English, hoppan, in
reference to the habit of the plant in climbing over hedges and fences.
Humulus is said to refer to its habit of creeping over the soil. Lupulus
(diminutive of lupus, wolf) is said to refer to the pernicious and
destructive influence the hop plant has upon plants which it uses as a
support, especially the willows. Plinius named it Lupus salictarius,
that is, the willow wolf or willow destroyer.
Beside the countries above named hops is also cultivated in Brazil and
other South American countries, Australia and India. There are several
cultivated varieties. According to most authorities it is not supposed
to be indigenous to North America, but Millspaugh expresses it as his
opinion that it is indigenous northward and westward, growing in
alluvial soil, blossoming in July and fruiting in September.
The plants are planted in rows and the rapidly growing branches trained
upon poles stuck into the soil. Three or four male plants (with
staminate flowers) are grown in an acre patch to supply the necessary
pollen. Some authorities state, however, that the female plants develop
enough staminate flowers to effect pollination. It is extensively
cultivated in England, Germany and France. Also in New England, New
York, Michigan, and in fact nearly every State in the Union.
In Belgium the young, tender tops of the plants are cut off in the
spring and eaten like asparagus, especially recommended to the pale and
anaemic and those with scrofulous taints.
The peculiar hop-like fruiting known as strobiles are collected in the
fall of the year (September to October), dried and tightly packed into
bales. The base of the scales of the strobile are covered with a
yellowish powder, consisting of resin-bearing glands, known as lupulin.
One pound of hops yields about one ounce of lupulin. Since the medicinal
virtues of hops reside in the lupulin it will be readily understood that
the hops from which the glands have been removed is of little or no
medicinal value. Lupulin as well as the hops have a faint, peculiar,
somewhat yeasty odor, which increases with age due to the development of
valerianic acid. For medicinal purposes only fresh hops should be used.
The principal use of hops is in the manufacture of beer, to which it
imparts the peculiarly bitter taste, and its repute as a tonic. For this
purpose enormous quantities are consumed in Germany and England. The
exhausted hops from the breweries form an excellent fertilizer for light
soils. The leaves have been used as fodder for cows. Leaves, stems and
roots possess astringent properties and have been used in tanning. In
Sweden the fibre of the stems is used in manufacturing a very durable
white cloth, not unlike the cloth made from hemp and flax.
Hops is used medicinally. It at first causes a very slight excitation of
brain and heart, followed by a rather pronounced disposition to sleep.
Pillows stuffed with hops form a very popular domestic remedy for
wakefulness. Hop bags dipped in hot water form a very soothing external
application in painful inflammatory conditions, especially of the
abdominal organs. It has undoubted value as a bitter tonic in dyspepsia
and in undue cerebral excitation. Tincture of lupulin and red pepper
(capsicum) enjoys the reputation of being a very efficient substitute
for alcoholic stimulants when their use is to be discontinued. Earlier
physicians recommended hops very highly in kidney and liver complaints,
as a “blood purifier” and to cure eruptive skin troubles. It is
recommended in nervous troubles and in delirium tremens. The roots were
formerly employed as a substitute for sarsaparilla.
Hops contains an etherial oil, resin and tannic acid. The oil and the
resin are important constituents in the manufacture of beer. The young
shoots contain asparagin, etherial oil, resin and sugar.
Albert Schneider.