NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 225 



LETTER XLI. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, July yd, 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 withy?//V^, 

 and the pastures and moist woods vn\h 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 needless work ; but a short list of trie more rare, 

 and the spots where they are to be found, may be neither unaccept- 

 able nor unentertaining : 



Helleborus fcetidus, stinking hellebore, bear's foot, or setterworth, 

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

 a great branching plant the winter through, blossoming 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 adminis- 

 tered with caution. 



Helleborus viridis, green hellebore, in the deep stfcny 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. 



Vaccinium oxycoccos, creeping bilberries, or cranberries, in the 

 bogs of Bin's-pond.* 



Vacciimim myrtillus, whortle, or bleaberries, on the dry hillocks 

 of Woolmer-forest. 



Drosera rolundifolia, round-leaved sundew, in the bogs of Bin's- 

 pond. 



* See note Letter VIII. to Pennant, p. 20. Bin's Pond is now drained. The marsh 

 plants therefore, are most probably now wanting. Drosera longifolia would in all 

 probability be D. anglica. 



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