THE WILD-FLOWERS 

 |V OF SELBORNE 



ONE hundred years have passed away since Gilbert 

 White was laid to rest in Selborne churchyard, and 

 those years have been years of considerable progress 

 in the study of botany. In White's day botany as a 

 science can hardly be said to have existed, and so it is 

 not surprising to find that he considered it " needless 

 work" to enumerate all the plants of his neighbour- 

 hood. However, in the Forty-first Letter to Daines 

 Barrington he gives a short list of the rarer and more 

 interesting plants, together with the spots where they 

 were to be found. It is the purpose of the present 

 paper to compare the botany of Selborne as chronicled 

 by Gilbert White in 1778 with what we know of it 

 to-day. 



The most striking feature in the scenery of the 

 parish is undoubtedly the " Hanger," covered now, as 

 in White's time, with beeches, " the most beautiful," 

 as he thought them, "of forest trees." The zigzag 

 path up the face of the hill is still crowned by the 

 Wishing-stone, from which, in clear weather, an 

 extensive view of the surrounding country may be 

 obtained ; the horizon is bounded by the Southdowns, 



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