OF SELBORNE 199 



LETTER XLI 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON 



Selborne, July 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 : — 



Helkborus foetidus, stinking hellebore, bear's foot, or 

 setterwort, all over the High-wood and Coney-croft- 

 hanger : this continues a great branching plant the winter 

 through, blossoming about January, and is very orna- 

 mental 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. 



Helkborus 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 ; 



