OF SELBORNE. 217 



LETTER XLL 



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 ftlices, 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 discovered within our limits would be a need- 

 less work ; but a short list of the more rare, and the spots 

 where they are to be found, may be neither unacceptable nor 

 unentertaining * : 



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

 wort, all over the High-wood and Coney-croft-hanger : this 

 continues a great branching plant the winter through, blos- 

 soming about January, and is very ornamental in shady walks 

 and shrubberies. 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 

 ground. 



* [A fuller catalogue of the noteworthy plants of Selborne and the 

 neighbourhood will be found in the Appendix. T. B.] 



