120 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



be the work of Thomas Gamier, of Rooksbury Park, 

 afterwards Dean of Winchester, assisted by the Rev. 

 E. Poulter, and deals largely, as we should expect, 

 with the plants of the Meon Valley, and those to be 

 found in the south of Hampshire. Unfortunately 

 the intention of continuing the flora was never carried 

 out, but the single catalogue that we possess is valu- 

 able as recording for the first time many species 

 indigenous to the county. Among these we select 

 for special mention the meadow rue, still growing 

 where Gamier found it, near Droxford Mill; the 

 beautiful corn-field weed Adonis autumnalis or 

 pheasant's eye, which has maintained its position 

 on the same farm since its first discovery; the sea- 

 kale, abundant at Calshot Spit; and many of our 

 Hampshire orchids, including the pyramidal orchis, 

 the dwarf or burnt orchis, the fragrant orchis, the 

 fly orchis, and the musk orchis now, as then, plentiful 

 on the same down. A fine plate is given of what is 

 called "a new discovered variety" of the bee orchis with 

 white instead of pink sepals. It is interesting to know 

 that a good many plants of this white variety of Ophrys 

 apifera flowered last summer on the very spot where 

 Garnier first met with it over a hundred years ago. 



During the last century a number of able botanists, 

 including Dr. Bromfield, the author of the Flora 

 Vectensis, have continued the work of Gerarde and 

 de 1'Obel, of Goodyer and Turner, of Gilbert White 

 and Dean Garnier. The county has been well searched 

 in all directions, and a great many new plants, un- 

 known to the early botanists, have been added to 

 their discoveries, with the gratifying result that the 

 new edition of the Flora of Hampshire is perhaps 

 the most complete county flora in existence. 



