226 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



could improve the sward of the district where he lived 

 would be an 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 occasion the growth of " two blades of 

 grass where one alone was seen before." 



I am, etc. 



LETTER XLI 



Sei-born-e, Jiihj 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 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 fatidus, 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 verj' 

 ornamental in shady walks and shrubberies. The good 



