VEGETABLES. 295 



.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 

 probably under the thick shade of the 

 beeches for many years, but could not ve- 

 getate 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 strawherry- 

 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. White. 



