io6 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



entirely unknown. Several striking instances occur 

 in the historic parish of Selborne. We have already 

 referred to the American Mimulus^ which now almost 

 chokes the little stream that flows down the valley of 

 the Lyth. In the swampy meadow hard by another 

 plant may be seen, which did not figure in the flora 

 of Selborne in the days of Gilbert White. We mean 

 the bistort or snakeweed, conspicuous with its pink 

 flowers in the month of June, and now growing 

 abundantly. In the year 1848 a single specimen of 

 this uncommon plant was noticed by Dr. Bromfield, 

 and duly chronicled in the pages of The Phytologist ; 

 and from this solitary individual the present colony 

 has doubtless sprung. Further down the valley, on 

 a warm slope facing south, there may be seen in the 

 early days of spring large numbers of the common 

 snowdrop. Had the plants existed in White's time 

 he would undoubtedly have mentioned them in his 

 famous botanical letter to Daines Barrington, in which 

 he enumerates " the more rare plants of the parish, 

 and the spots where they may be found " ; but there 

 they are to-day in luxuriant profusion, a beautiful 

 addition to the local flora. 



A practice that is not to be commended, but which 

 has occasionally been followed even by distinguished 

 naturalists, is sometimes answerable for the existence 

 of strange plants in unwonted places. We refer to the 

 habit of scattering the seeds of rare or interesting wild- 

 flowers in localities where the species had not before 

 been known to exist. No less an authority than 

 Gilbert White was once guilty of this misdemeanour. 

 "I wish," he wrote to his "dear niece Anne," "that 

 we could say that we had ye Parnassia ; I have 

 sowed seeds in our bogs several times, but to no 



