LETTER XLI 



TO THE SAME 



SELBORNE,/W/>/ 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 filices, and the pastures 

 and moist woods \vithfungi. 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 the more rare, and the spots where 

 they are to be found, may be neither unacceptable 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 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 



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