OF 8ELB0BNE. 
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 XLT. 
TO THE HONOUEABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 
Selborne, July 3, 1778. 
!N" 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 FlUces,^ 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 foetidus , stinking hellebore, bear's foot, or set- 
terwort, — 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 
* The ferns, though abundant in this district, belong comparatively 
to few species. — Ed. 
