HAILING FAR SUMMER 367 



tion, and their comparative scarcity in woods and thickets, 

 far from inhabited sites, has laid them under suspicion of 

 being early escapes from gardens, like the aconite, and not 

 original natives of England. This is very doubtful, and in 

 any case can never now be proved ; while the snowdrop has 

 so long bloomed in complete independence of human cultiva- 

 tion that it is now a genuine wild-flower, whatever may be its 

 ancestry. 



Exaggerated importance is often given to the discussion 

 whether well-established plants are native or introduced 

 species ; and the arguments for a foreign origin are some- 

 times pushed unreasonably far. The black or stinking 

 hellebore, or bear's-foot, which blooms in January or early 

 February, is also sometimes said to be an introduced species, 

 chiefly because it is a rather scarce and local plant, which was 

 formerly used in medicine. The same argument would cut 

 out from the British list many other species which no one 

 would seriously deny to be natives. It is also claimed that 

 this hellebore clings to the site of old houses, like the snow- 

 drops ; but the statement is less true. Its characteristic 

 haunt is on stony, bushy hillsides, usually of limestone ; 

 and it is found in just the same situations of this kind in 

 England, where its native right is questioned, as in Switzer- 

 land, which belongs to the central European region where 

 it is admitted to be at home. The truth is that it likes 

 loose limestone hillsides with plenty of protection from rough 

 and nipping winds ; and such situations are rare enough to 

 make it scarce and local. It is easy to distinguish from the 

 green hellebore, which flowers about four weeks later, at the 

 end of February or the beginning of March. The black 

 hellebore is a tough, bushy plant about two feet high, bear- 

 ing dark, tattered, half-evergreen leaves, as well as younger 

 and fresher ones of new winter growth. Its leaves are 



