162 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



LETTEE XLI. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, July 3rd, 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 Jilices, and the pastures and 

 moist woods with 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 the more rare, and the spots where they are to be found, 

 may be neither unacceptable nor unentertaining : 



Helleborus fmtidus, 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 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.* 



Vaccinium myrtillus, whortle, or bleaberries, on the dry hillocks of 

 "Woolmer-forest. 



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

 pond. 



Drosera longifolia, long-leaved sundew, in the bogs of Bin's-pond. 



Comarum palustre, purple comarum, or marsh cinquefoil, in the 

 bogs of Bin's-pond. 



Hypericum androscemum, Tutsan, St. John's Wort, in the stony, 

 hollow lanes. 



Vinca minor, less periwinkle, in Selborne-hanger and Shrub-wood. 



Monotropa hypopithys, yellow monotropa, or birds' nest, in Sel- 

 borne-hanger under the shady beeches, to whose roots it seems to be 

 parasitical, at the north-west end of the Hanger. 



Chlora perfoliata, Blackstonia perfoliata, Hudsoni, perforated yellow- 

 wort, on the banks in the King's-field. 



Paris quadrifolia, herb of Paris, true-love, or one-berry, in the 

 Church-litten-coppice. 



* 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. 



