6 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



every spring in a wood hard by. In the damper parts 

 of the valley near the stream the common soft rush is 

 very abundant ; this is the plant which a hundred 

 years ago was gathered for the purpose of making 

 candles, the process of which is fully described by 

 White in one of his letters. Here, too, the red spikes 

 of rtiuicx mingle with the white flowers of meadow- 

 sweet and the purple blossoms of thistle and self-heal, 

 while the air is full of the scent of water-mint. On 

 the rising ground, in an open part of the wood which 

 overshadows the valley, large patches of French- 

 willow are in blossom, and the large rose-coloured 

 flowers make a fine show against the dark green back- 

 ground. The red thread-like stems of the creeping 

 cinquefoil trail all over the ground, and star the 

 pathway through the wood with their showy yellow 

 flowers. 



The " hollow lanes " present an even more rugged 

 appearance than they did in White's time. He then 

 described them as " more like watercourses than roads, 

 and as bedded with naked rag for furlongs together. 

 In many places they are reduced sixteen or eighteen 

 feet beneath the level of the fields, and after floods 

 and in frosts exhibit very grotesque and wild appear- 

 ances." These hollow lanes are no longer used as 

 thoroughfares, a new road to Alton having been made 

 some years ago. In places it is hardly now possible 

 even to walk along them, so overgrown are they with 

 rank herbage. Here and there boughs of hazel, ash, 

 or maple meet overhead, while coarse umbelliferce and 

 the tangled stems of briar and dog-rose obstruct the 

 narrow way. In places the perpendicular sides, often 

 1 8 feet high, are bare of herbage, and present a naked 

 surface of white freestone, broken by the gnarled roots 



