But it was long doubted in Sweden, whether this plant would thrive in the cold climate of that country; in which however it grows wild. In the time of Gustavus I, who became king in 1523, Sweden was obliged to give for the foreign hops it used 1200 schifpfunds of iron, which was about the ninth part of all the iron made in the kingdom. In the year 1558 the king complained, in an edict, that a pound of hops cost as much as a barrel of malt, * and on that account was desirous to en copy of which I have now before me from the library of our university. The passage which belongs to this subject stands in Bygninga Balker, cap. 49 and 50, p. XL. a: Flar man bryter Pors i annars mans mark Hwar som bryter Pors i almenningiom häradz eller landz fore Olafs-messo, warder takin widh, böte sex öra, Hemptar man wille humbla a bya almenningiom, häradz eller landz .fore Bartols-messo - Hwilkin bonde eller landbo ey hafwer humbla gard medh 40 humbla stänger, som humbla wäxer widher, böte thre öra Swenska hwart aar. The following is the translation given in Suecia regni leges provinciales a Carolo IX. publicatæ et a J. Lcccenio in Latin. ling. traductæ, Holmiæ 1672, fol. p. 104: Si quis myrtum aut myricam colligat in aliena silva, refundat damnum cum 3 marcis, si legittime convictus sit. Si quis difringat myrtum aut. myricam in communi territorii vel provinciæ silva ante festum Olai, et in ipso facto deprehendatur, mulctetur 6 oris. Si quis colligat lupulum silvestrem in communi pagi ante festum Bartholomæi, solvat. Quicunque agricola vel colonus non habet hortum lupularium cum 40 perticis ad quas lupulus excrescat. In the WästGötha Laghbook üppa Carl XI befalning samman-fattat aff Georg. Stiernhielm, Stockholm 1663, fol. is the following passage in Fornämir Bolkär, iii. 5, p. 50, b: Flar man bryter Pors i them skoge han a inkte i, böte. The same words almost occur in Thingmala Bolkür, x. 4, p. 82. But the antiquity of these laws is not certainly known. See Dalin's Geschichte des königreichs Schweden, ii. 677. -- -1 * Tal om Sveriges almänna hushällning under K. Gustaf I courage the cultivation of the hop-plant. But his exertions were attended with so little effect, that even under the reign of Queen Christina, that is, in the middle of the seventeenth century, all the hops used in the kingdom were imported from Germany, and particularly from Brunswick and Saxony. The queen had some hop-plantations as rarities in her garden; yet the cultivation of hops was begun under this princess, and carried so far that German hop-farmers, who before had been accustomed to travel to Sweden every three years, to receive payment and take new orders, returned very much dissatisfied, and suffered a part of their hop-grounds to run to waste. Under Charles XI, however, who reigned from 1660 to 1697, the cultivation of hops was first brought to a state of considerable improvement, In the year 1766, Linnæus hazarded a conjecture that hops, spinach, chenopodium, tarragon, and many other garden vegetables were brought to Europe by the Goths, during their periods of emigration, from Russia and particularly the Ukraine, because the old writers make no mention of these plants, and because in those dristricts they all grow wild at present.* It, however, appears certain, that hops belong to our indigenous plants, as they grow every where wild in Germany, Swisserland, regering af grefve Nils Bielke. Stockholm 1776, 8vo. p. 18. Da lin's Geschichte, iii. 1, p. 88. * Linnæi Amœnitat. Academ. vii. p. 452. England, and Sweden, and even in countries into which the cultivation of them has never yet been introduced, and where it cannot be supposed that they accidentally became wild by being conveyed from hop-fields and gardens. The want of information in works older than the emigrations of the northern tribes, is no proof that a plant did not then exist. At that time there was no Linnæus to transmit plants to posterity, as Hipparchus, according to the expression of Pliny, did the stars. Such vegetable productions only as had become remarkable on account of their utility or hurtful qualities, or by some singular circumstance, occur in the works of the ancients. Many others remained unknown, or at least without names, till natural history acquired a more systematic form; and even at present, botanists have often the satisfaction to discover some plant not before observed, or at any rate a new kind of mushroom or moss. Is it probable that the Chinese even are acquainted with our hops? They have a kind of beer made from barley and wheat, which is called tarasun; and according to the account of J. G. Gmelin, who purposely made himself acquainted with the preparation of it, hops formed by pressure into masses, shaped like a brick, are added to it.* It is well known that the Chinese have also a kind of tea formed into cakes by strong pres 2 * Gmelin's Reise durch Sibirien. Göttingen, 1752, 8vo. iii. P. 55. sure. Our hops are compressed in the same manner in Bohemia; and in that state will keep without losing any of their strength for fifty years. They are put into a sack or bag of coarse canvass, and subjected to a press. A square sewed bag, each side of which is two ells, contains fifty bushels of hops prepared in this manner; and when any of them are required for brewing, the bag is made fast to a beam, and as much as may be necessary is cut out with an axe. The whole mass is of a brown colour, and has a resemblance to pitch, in which not a single hop-leaf can be distinguished. Whether the Chinese conceived the idea of employing our common hops for the like purpose, is a question of some importance in regard to the history of them; but at present I am not able to answer it. BLACK LEAD. To ascertain how old the use of black lead is for writing might be of some importance in diplomatics, as the antiquity of manuscripts ruled or written with this substance, or of drawings made with it, could then be determined. What little I know on this subject I shall here communicate, * Mehlers Landwirthschaft des Konigreichs Böhmens, iv. 2, p. 45. in order that others may be induced to collect more. I allude here to pencils formed of that mineral called, in common, plumbago and molybdena, though a distinction is made between these names by the new mineralogists. The mineral used for black-lead pencils they call reissbley, plumbago, or graphites; but under the term wasserbley and molybdana they understand a mineral once considered to be the same as the former, but which, however like it may be in appearance, differs from it in being heavier, occurring much seldomer, and containing a new metal, almost of a steel-gray colour, exceedingly brittle, and named also molyb dana. Plumbago, which is the substance here meant, when exposed to an open fire is almost entirely consumed, leaving nothing but a little iron and siliceous earth. It contains no lead; and the names reissbley and bleystift have no other foundation than the lead-coloured traces which it leaves upon paper. The darker, finer, and cleaner the lines it makes are, the fitter it is for drawing and writing. These lines are durable, and do not readily fade; but when one chooses, they may be totally rubbed out. Black lead, therefore, can be used with more convenience and speed than any coloured earth, charcoal, or even ink. It is well known that transcribers, more than a years ago, when they wished their writing to be in a particular manner beautiful and regular, thousand years ago, |