NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 225 
|e ce es Mal 2) a a el © 
TO THE SAME, 
SELBORNE, $¥uly 37d, 1778. 
DEAR SIR,—In a district so diversified with such a variety of 
hill and dale, aspects, and soils, it is no wonder that great choice 
of plants should be found. Chalks, clays, sands, sheep-walks and 
downs, bogs, heaths, woodlands, and champaign fields, cannot but 
furnish an ample Flora. The deep rocky lanes abound with /i/ices, 
and the pastures and moist woods with fuzgz. If in any branch of 
botany we may seem to be wanting, it must be in the large aquatic 
plants, which are not to be expected on a spot far removed from 
rivers, and lying up amidst the hill country at the spring heads. 
To enumerate all the plants that have been discovered within our 
limits would be a needless work; but a short list of the more rare, 
and the spots where they are to be found, may be neither unaccept- 
able nor unentertaining :— 
Felleborus fetidus, stinking hellebore, bear’s foot, or setterworth, 
—all over the High-wood and Coney-croft-hanger: this continues 
a great branching plant the winter through, blossoming about 
January, and is very ornamental in shady walks and shrubberies. 
The good women give the leaves powdered to children troubled 
with worms ; but it is a violent remedy, and ought to be adminis- 
tered with caution. 
FHlelleborus viridis, green hellebore,—in the deep stony lane on 
the left hand just before the turning to Norton-farm, and at the 
top of Middle Dorton under the hedge: this plant dies down to the 
ground early in autumn, and springs again about February, flowering 
almost as socn as it appears above ground. 
Vaccinium oxycoccos, creeping bilberries, or cranberries,—in the 
bogs of Bin’s-pond.* 
Vaccinium myrtillus, whortle, or bleaberries,—on the dry hillocks 
of Woolmer-forest. 
Drosera rotundifolia, round-leaved sundew,—in the bogs of Bin’s- 
pond. 
* See note Letter VIII. to Pennant, p. 20.—Bin’s Pond is now drained. The marsh 
plants therefore, are most probably now wanting. Dvosera longifolia would in all 
probability be D. anglica. 
Q 
