The Natural History of Selborne

Hops are dioecious plants: hence perhaps it might be proper, tho’ 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 ther growth, cultivated by man, has such frequent & general failures as hops.

Daniel Wheeler’s boy found a young fledge cuckow in the nest of an hedge-sparrow.  Under the nest lay an egg of the hedge-sparrow, which looked as if it had been sucked.  In the late hot weather the cock bird has been crying much in the neighbourhood of the nest, but not since last week.