2jo NATURAL HISTORY OF &ELBORNE. 



LETTER XLT. 



SELBORNE, Juh yd, 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 

 filices, and the pastures and moist woods with fungi. 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 dis- 

 covered 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 unacceptable nor unentertaining : 



Helleborus fcetidus, stinking hellebore, bear's foot, or setter- 

 worth, 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 shrub- 

 beries. The good women give the leaves powdered to children 

 troubled with worms; but it is a violent remedy, and ought to be 

 administered with caution. 



Helleborus 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 soon as it appears above the ground. 



Vacdnium oxycoccos, creeping bilberries, or cranberries, in the 

 bogs of Bin's-pond. 



Vacdnium wyrtillus, whortle, or bleaberries, on the dry hil- 

 locks of Wolmer-forest. 



Drosera rotundifolia, round leaved sundew, in the bogs of 

 Bin's-pond. 



Drosera longifolia, long-leaved sundew, in the bogs of Bin's- 

 pond. 



