8 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



Forest/' and are gathered by the gipsies and sold in 

 the towns and villages. Hound's-tongue, a stout 

 plant with lurid purple flowers, and a strong dis- 

 agreeable smell like that of mice, grows in several 

 parts of the forest ; and in one particular spot a few 

 plants of the rare white horehound, covered, as its 

 name suggests, with white woolly down, and strongly 

 aromatic — once a famous remedy for coughs — may be 

 found, together with a few specimens of motherwort, a 

 plant very seldom met with in the neighbourhood. In 

 some places a North American plant, with perfoliate 

 leaves and small white flowers, called Claytonia, after 

 an American botanist, has established itself; and once 

 a specimen of dame's-violet was found. In spring the 

 pretty little Tcesdalia covers the sandy heath ; and on 

 a bank the tower mustard grows, and the uncommon 

 — at least about Selborne— hoary cinquefoil. On a 

 " hanger " in a neighbouring parish thousands of 

 golden daffodils dance and flutter in the breeze every 

 spring, and people come for miles round to gather 

 them. At the foot of the " Hanger," in a small wet 

 copse, the lungwort grows. This particular copse is 

 full of it, but you may search every other wood in 

 the neighbourhood in vain. The flowers somewhat 

 resemble the cowslip, only their colour is purple ; 

 indeed, some people call the plant the Jerusalem cow- 

 slip. Not far from the copse in which the lungwort 

 grows is an old disused chalk-pit, and in this pit 

 the deadly nightshade is abundant. It is the most 

 dangerous of British poisonous plants. The dark 

 purple berries, as large as cherries, are tempting to 

 children, and fatal cases of poisoning sometimes occur. 

 Fortunately, it is a plant of rare occurrence and is 

 mostly found in the neighbourhood of ruins. 



