OBSEEYATIONS 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 
passage. 
"ipsa 
Flectere luctantes inter vineta juveneos." — Geohg. 
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 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 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. 
