ehouse full of hops; and in certain northern districts a
watery extract from the flowers is given instead of opium. It is
useful to know that for sound reasons a moderate supper of bread
and butter, with crisp fresh lettuces, and light home-brewed ale
which contains Hops, is admirably calculated to promote sleep,
except in a full-blooded plethoric person. _Lupulin_, the glandular
powder from the dried strobiles, will induce sleep without causing
constipation, or headache. The dose is from two to four grains at
bedtime [266] on a small piece of bread and butter, or mixed with a
spoonful of milk.

The year 1855 produced a larger crop of cultivated Hops than has
been known before or since. When Hop poles are shaken by the
wind there is a distant electrical murmur like thunder.

Hop tea in the leaf is now sold by grocers, made from a mixture of
the Kentish and Indian plants, so as to combine in its infusion, the
refreshment of the one herb with the sleep-inducing virtues of the
other. The hops are brought direct from the farmers, just as they are
picked. They are then laid for a few hours to wither, after which
they are put under a rolling apparatus, which ill half-an-hour makes
them look like tea leaves, both in shape and colour. They are finally
mixed with Indian and Ceylon teas.

The young tops of the Hop plant if gathered in the spring and
boiled, may be eaten as asparagus, and make a good pot-herb: they
were formerly brought to market tied up in small bundles for table
use.

A popular notion has, in some places, associated the Hop and the
Nightingale together as frequenting the same districts.

Medicinally the Hop is tonic, stomachic, and diuretic, with
antiseptic effects; it prevents worms, and allays the disquietude of
nervous indigestion. The popular nostrum "Hop Bitters" is thus
made: Buchu leaves, two ounces; Hops, half-a-pound; boil in five
quarts of water, in an iron vessel, for an hour; when lukewarm add
essence of Winter-green (_Pyrola_), two ounces, and one pint of
alcohol. Take one tablespoonful three times in the day, before
eating. White Bryony root is likewise used in making the Bitters.

[267] HOREHOUND (White and Black).

The herb Horehound occurs of two sorts, white and black, in our
hedge-rows, and on the sides of banks, each getting its generic
name, which was originally Harehune, from _hara_, hoary, and
_hune_, honey; or, possibly, the name Horehound may be a
corruption of the Latin _U