OF SELBORNE. 329 



Gentiana Amarella, autumnal gentian, or fellvvort, 

 on the Zigzag and Hanger ; 



Lathrcca Squamaria, tooth wort, in the Church Litten 

 Coppice under some hazels near the foot bridge, in 

 Trimming's garden hedge, and on the dry wall opposite 

 Grange Yard ; 



Dipsacus pilosus, small teasel, in the Short and Long 

 Lith; 



Lathyrus sylvestris, narrow-leaved, or wild lathyrus, 

 in the bushes at the foot of the Short Lith, near the 

 path; 



Ophrys spiralis, ladies' traces, in the Long Lith, and 

 towards the south corner of the common ; 



Ophrys Nidus Avis, bird's nest ophrys, in the Long 

 Lith under the shady beeches among the dead leaves, 

 in Great Dorton among the bushes, and on the Hanger 

 plentifully l ; 



1 Until I had discovered the extraordinary manner in which this plant 

 propagates itself, I was much puzzled how a plant of such rapid and vi- 

 gorous growth, bearing seed like the finest particles of dust, could spring 

 up in a few weeks in the spring, where there had been no intimation of 

 its existence the preceding season, and without ever being seen in a 

 young state ; and I had observed that after disappearing for a few years, 

 it would rise again in vigour and abundance in the same place. 



Many years ago, being amongst beech woods in the winter where the 

 plant abounded and where the dead flower-stalks were still standing, I 

 determined to investigate its secret history. The plant sometimes grows 

 in the earth, but oftener in masses of dead beech leaves. On removing 

 the leaves or mould to the bottom of the dead stalks, it appeared to have 

 grown out of a bundle of fleshy fibres, about as thick as a crow-quill, di- 

 verging every way. The heart of the bundle, where they were connected, 

 adjoining to the flower stem, was decaying; the fibres were falling apart, 

 and the plant appeared to have died as an annual after flowering. On 

 stirring the leaves further, at a small distance, I discovered a live bundle 

 of similar fibres, with a very strong white shoot or eye, like the dormant 

 shoot of a perennial herbaceous plant, which was evidently to produce a 

 flowering stem in the next summer. Pursuing my researches, I soon 

 discovered other similar bundles of different sizes, which were clearly 

 immature and not ready to sprout in the following spring. On examina- 

 tion of the smallest, I found that it grew from the end of a half dead fibre ; 

 and recurring to the dead plant which I had first taken up, I perceived 

 that its several fibres, or at least many of them, though dead at the base 

 or end, which had been attached to the old plant, were alive at the other 



