258 BOTANY OF SELBORNE. 



the hardy from the tender, nor the succulent and 

 nutritive from the dry and juiceless. 



The study of grasses would be of great conse- 

 quence to a northerly and grazing kingdom. The 

 botanist that could improve the sward of the district 

 where he lived, would be an useful member of society : 

 to raise a thick turf on a naked soil, would be worth 

 volumes of systematic knowledge ; and he would be 

 the best commonwealth's man that could occasion 

 the growth of " two blades of grass where one alone 

 was seen before." 



LETTER LXXXIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, July 3, 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 want- 

 ing, 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 neither be unaccept- 

 able nor unentertaining. 



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

 or setterwort all over the Highwood and Coney- 



