Volume II Part 7 (1/2)

Vegetation is highly worthy of our attention; and in itself is of the utmost consequence to mankind, and productive of many of the greatest comforts and elegances of life. To plants we owe timber, bread, beer, honey, wine, oil, linen, cotton, etc., what not only strengthens our hearts, and exhilarates our spirits, but what secures us from inclemencies of weather and adorns our persons. Man, in his true state of nature, seems to be subsisted by spontaneous vegetation; in middle climes, where gra.s.ses prevail, he mixes some animal food with the produce of the field and garden; and it is towards the polar extremes only that, like his kindred bears and wolves, he gorges himself with flesh alone, and is driven to what hunger has never been known to compel the very beasts, to prey on his own species.

The productions of vegetation have had a vast influence on the commerce of nations, and have been the great promoters of navigation, as may be seen in the articles of sugar, tea, tobacco, opium, ginsing, betel, paper, etc. As every climate has its peculiar produce our natural wants bring on a mutual intercourse; so that by means of trade each distinct part is supplied with the growth of every lat.i.tude. But, without the knowledge of plants and their culture, we must have been content with our hips and haws, without enjoying the delicate fruits of India and the salutiferous drugs of Peru.

Instead of examining the minute distinctions of every various species of each obscure genus, the botanist should endeavour to make himself acquainted with those that are useful. You shall see a man readily ascertain every herb of the field, yet hardly know wheat from barley, or at least one sort of wheat or barley from another.

But of all sorts of vegetation the gra.s.ses seem to be most neglected; neither the farmer nor the grazier seem to distinguish the annual from the perennial, the hardy from the tender, nor the succulent and nutritive from the dry and juiceless.

The study of gra.s.ses would be of great consequence to a northerly and grazing kingdom. The botanist that could improve 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 occasion the growth of ”two blades of gra.s.s where one alone was seen before.”

I am, etc.

LETTER XLI.

SELBORNE, _July_ 3_rd_, 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:--

_h.e.l.leborus foetidus_, stinking h.e.l.lebore, bear's foot, or setterworth,--all over the High Wood and Coneycroft 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.

_h.e.l.leborus viridis_, green h.e.l.lebore,--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 the ground.

_Vaccinium oxycoccos_, creeping bilberries, or cranberries,--in the bogs of Bin's Pond.

_Vaccinium myrtillus_, whortle, or bleaberries--on the dry hillocks of Wolmer 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 pal.u.s.tre_, purple comarum, or marsh cinquefoil--in the bogs of Bin's Pond.

_Hyperic.u.m androsoemum_, 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 Selborne 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_, perfoliated yellow-wort--on the banks in the King's Field.

_Paris quadrifolia_, herb of Paris, true-love, or oneberry--in the Church Litten Coppice.

_Chrysosplenium oppositifolium_, opposite golden saxifrage--in the dark and rocky hollow lanes.

_Gentiana amarella_, autumnal gentian or fellwort--on the Zigzag and Hanger.

_Lathraea squamaria_, tooth-wort--in the Church Litten Coppice under some hazels near the foot-bridge, in Tr.i.m.m.i.n.g's garden hedge, and on the dry wall opposite Grange Yard.

_Dipsacus pilosus_, small teasel--in the Short and Long Lith.