OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 301 



the superfluous shoots, &c., but lately I have observed a new circum- 

 stance, which was a neighbouring farmer's harrowing 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 



-"ipsa 



Flectere luctantes inter vineta juvencos." GEORG. 



Hops are dioecious 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 ? WHITE. 



SEED LYING DOKMANT. 



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 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. WHITE. 



BEANS SOWN BY BIEDS. 



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 pease are growing also in the same situation, and 

 probably under the same circumstances. WHITE. 



