300 OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 



between the rows of hops with a small triangular harrow, drawn 

 by one horse, and guided by two handles. This occurrence 

 brought to my mind the following passage. 



" ipsa 



Flectere luctantes inter vineta juvencos." Georgic II. 



Hops are diecious plants : hence perhaps it might be proper, 

 though not practised, to leave purposely some male plants in 

 every garden, that their farina might impregnate the blossoms. 

 The female plants without their male attendants are not in their 

 natural state : hence we may suppose the frequent failure of crop 

 so incident to hop-grounds ; no other growth, cultivated by man, 

 has such frequent and general failures as hops. 



Two hop gardens much injured by a hail-storm, June 5, show 

 now (September 2) a prodigious crop, and larger and fairer hops 

 than any in the parish. The owners seem now to be convinced 

 that the hail, by beating off the tops of the binds, has increased 

 the side-shoots, and improved the crop. Query. Therefore 

 should not the tops of hops be pinched off when the binds are 

 very gross, and strong ? 



SEED LYING DORMANT. 



THE naked part of the Hanger is now covered with thistles of 

 various kinds. The seeds of these thistles may have lain pro- 

 bably under the thick shade of the beeches for many years, but 

 could not vegetate till the sun and air were admitted. When 

 old beech trees are cleared away, the naked ground in a year or 

 two becomes covered with strawberry plants, the seeds of which 

 must have lain in the ground for an age at least. One of the 

 slidders or trenches down the middle of the Hanger, close 

 covered over with lofty beeches near a century old, is still called 

 strawberry slidder, though no strawberries have grown there in 

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

 abound there, and will again when the obstruction is removed.* 



BEANS SOWN BY BIRDS. 



MANY horse-beans sprang up in my field-walks in the autumn, 



* In like manner, when the woods are cleared in many parts of North America, a thick growth 

 of red cedar, a species of juniper, makes its appearance, though none had been previously noticed 

 in the neighbourhood, from which it appears that seeds may lie dormant for an indefinite period, 

 till circumstances induce them to germinate. So also soil, turned up from some depth, generally 

 produces plants not previously observed in the vicinity. ED. 



