354 OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 



there in the memory of man. That sort of fruit did once, no 

 doubt abound there, and will again, when the obstruction is 

 removed.* WHITE. 



SOWN BY BIRDS. Many horse-beans sprang up 

 in my field-walks in the autumn, and are now grown to a 

 considerable height. As the Ewel was in beans last summer, 

 it is most likely that these seeds came from thence ; but 

 then the distance is too considerable for them to have been 

 conveyed by mice. It is most probable, therefore, that they 

 were brought by birds, and, in particular, by jays and pies, 

 who seem to have hid them among the grass and moss, and 

 then to have forgotten where they had stowed them. Some 

 peas are growing also in the same situation, and probably 

 under the same circumstances. WHITE. 



CUCUMBERS SET BY BEES. If bees, who are much the 

 best setters of cucumbers, do not happen to take kindly 

 to the frames, the best way is to tempt them by a little 

 honey, put on the meal and female bloom. When they are 

 once induced to haunt the frames, they set all the fruit, and 

 will hover with impatience round the lights in a morning, 

 till the glasses are opened. Proved by experience. 



WHITE. 



WHEAT. A notion has always obtained, that, in England, 

 hot summers are productive of fine crops of wheat ; yet in the 

 years 1780 and 1781, though the heat was intense, the wheat 

 was much mildewed, and the crop light. Does not severe 

 heat, while the straw is milky, occasion its juices to exude, 

 which being extravasated, occasion spots, discolour the 

 stems and blades, and injure the health of the plants ? 



WHITE. 



TRUFFLES . August. A truffle-hunter called on us, 



* In breaking up old turf in making plantations in the royal parks, and 

 which probably had not been disturbed for centuries, I have had several 

 opportunities of observing the vegetation of plants which had not previously 

 been observed in the neighbourhood. For instance, in Bushy Park, heart's- 

 ease, and the tree mignonette (reseda luteola) appeared in abundance. I also 

 saw the blue columbine in a plantation in Devonshire. ED. 



