OF SELBORNE. 249 



The study of grasses would be of great consequence to a 

 northerly and grazing kingdom. The botanist that could im- 

 prove the sward of the district where he lived, would be a 

 useful member of society to raise a thick turf on a naked 

 soil would be worth volumes of systematic knowledge ; and 

 he would be the best commonwealth's man that could occa- 

 sion the growth of " two blades of grass where one alone 

 was seen before." 



LETTER XLI. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BABRINGTON. 



SELBORNE, July 3, 1778. 



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, 1 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 unentertain- 

 ing : 



Helleborus fcetidus, stinking hellebore, bear's foot, or set- 

 ter wort, 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 



1 The ferns, though abundant in this district, belong comparatively 

 to few species. ED. 



