267 



NOEFOLK NOTES. 

 By W. H. Bukbell, F.L.S., and W. G. Clarke. 



During the past three years several journeys have been made 

 by us to West Norfolk to study the moss flora of that division of 

 tlie county, and to see some of the rare flowering plants which 

 make their home in the sand plains around Brandon and Thetford. 

 A more detailed report is being submitted to the Norfolk and 

 Norwich Naturalists' Society, but some of the notes may interest 

 the wider circle of readers who can be reached through the 

 Journal of Botany. 



One enquiry uppermost in our thoughts was for Spliacpmm. 

 Bog moss is not plentiful in East Anglia, and as a rule it is absent 

 from marshes communicating with the river systems. Exceptions 

 at Horning in the Bure Valley ; Honing and Sutton in the Ant 

 Valley ; at Calthorpe Broad ; Lopham in the Waveney Valley ; and 

 Hinderclay in the Little Ouse Valley, where Sphagnum and Cliara 

 are associated, show that lime is tolerated under certain con- 

 ditions, but our experience is that it rarely forms a conspicuous 

 element in the vegetation except in small swampy areas which 

 carry the drainage of decalcified gravels and loam. A typical 

 instance in East Norfolk occurs at Horsford and Newton ; the 

 rivulets which originate in these and the adjoining parishes, and 

 uniting at Spixworth Bridge find their way to the Bure at 

 Wroxham, pass through six miles of meadows, swampy in places, 

 where, so far as we have observed. Sphagnum does not occur ; but 

 in hollows on the adjoining heathland, a few feet above the level 

 of the meadows, the peaty pools are filled and bordered with it. 

 A parallel case in West Norfolk occurs on Koydon Common ; the 

 brown peat-stained water of the deeper pools carries masses of 

 Sphagnum cuspidatum and members of the subsecundum group, 

 while the shallow peat flashes are carpeted and bordered by many- 

 hued cushions of most of the types which have been detected in 

 the county. In a less conspicuous way Sphagnum occurs in 

 v.-c. 28 at Pentney, West Acre, and Hockham, but such ai'eas form 

 a small proportion of the swampy wastes. The species noticed 

 in West Norfolk were : S. cymhifolium Ehrh., S. cymhifolium var. 

 squarrosulum Nees & Hornsch., S. papillosuvi Lindb., S. rigidum 

 Schp., S. tenellum Ehrh., S. subsecundum var. contortum Schp., 

 *S'. inundatum Warnst., S. rufescens Limpr., S. squarrosum Pers., 

 *S'. acutifolium Ehrh., S. acutifolium var. subnitens Dixon, S.fim- 

 briatum Wils., S. intermedium Hoffm., S. cuspidatum Ehrh. 

 1910 appears to have been a favourable year for spore production; 

 including S. rigidum, which rarely fruits, tlie cushions in July 

 were laden with capsules ; two rare-fruiting liypna, //. clodcs and 

 H. stramineum, were also seen with capsules at Caldecote and 

 West Acre respectively. 



Other interesting bryophytes were : Dicranum spurium Hedw. 

 at Grimston shndMctzgeria furcata var. ceruginosa Hook, at Narford, 

 both now records for Watson's Ouse province ; Griramia apocarpa 



