THE HOP-MOTH
“What is that pretty butterfly in your box, next to the pyralis?” Emile asked his uncle when the latter was showing the children some of his specimens of moths and butterflies. “It has silver wings bordered with red.”
“That is not a butterfly, my boy,” replied Uncle Paul; “it is a moth that infests hop-vines.”
“Are hops those things they make beer with?”
Hop Plant
1, male flowering branch; 2, fruiting branch; a, male flower; b, female flower; c, single fruit; d, embryo.
“Beer is not made from hops, my boy; it is made from barley. First the barley is slightly moistened, after which it is kept at a mild temperature. The grain begins to sprout just as it would do if sown in the field. For the nourishment of the little plants, which have no roots as yet, a special food already prepared is needed, just as [[369]]the young kitten, not yet big enough to catch mice, needs its mother’s milk. All grain, in beginning to grow, whether it be wheat or oats or rye or any other, requires a special form of nourishment, ready prepared. But where do you suppose it is to be found? You hadn’t thought of that. I will tell you. The grain has it in itself. In a kernel of barley or wheat or oats or rye there is a white substance which, when ground to powder, is known as flour.”
“Then the sprouting plant feeds on flour?”
“Not exactly; flour is too coarse a food for it. The little plant takes its nourishment much as we do when we are very small. It sucks up water holding in solution the substances needed for its growth. But flour will not dissolve in water, as you very well know; consequently, the little plant would die of hunger right beside its store of provision if the flour were not prepared for it—I might say, cooked for it—in a way suited to its needs.”