78 Pnici'i'iliniis. 



Mr. Arthur Bennett, F.L.S., of Croydon, read a paper 

 entitled ' A Botanical Eun through the Fens ' : — 



The Fens of East Anglia inchxde parts of Lincolnshire, 

 Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk, and smaller portions of Suffolk 

 and Huntingdon. 



To those who have never visited these parts of England, 

 no idea can be formed of the peculiar charms that come over 

 one when wandering among them in summer. They are not 

 like bogs or mai'shes, and yet they are very wet in places, 

 and the extreme flatness, and width of view, especially in 

 parts of Cambridgeshire, is so unlike anything one sees 

 elsewhere. 



Before good old Eichard de Eulos attempted to drain 

 Deeping Fen, the fen stretched for miles, one vast area of 

 waving reeds, interrupted hei'e and there by sheets of water, 

 from half-an-acre, to others of two to three miles in circuit, 

 abounding with pike, perch, ruffs, bream, tench, dace, and 

 eels in particular, and the bird-life was wonderful in its 

 extent and numbers. 



These sheets of water had very curious names, some of 

 those in the East Fen, in Lincolnshire, were called Cherry 

 Burn, Hart's Booze, Cow Mouth, Bill Water Clotton, &c. 

 Their waters communicated with each other by long reedy 

 dykes, very similar to what may still be seen between the 

 rivers and the Broads in Norfolk ; and delightful places they 

 are on a hot day in summer. 



The draining of the Fens was not completed without great 

 opposition ; this is very well portrayed in a popular book 

 called ' Dick o' the Fen,' in which the digging of the great 

 dykes is well described and illustrated. One can well under- 

 stand the wrath of the old men especially, to see their 

 roaming over the wastes spoiled, their shooting wild fowl, 

 bobbing for eels, and listening to the " Holland Waits," or 

 Lincolnshire Nightingales (i. e., the Frogs). 



Now we will suppose we start for a botanical excursion in 

 the Fen county, and if anyone does so, let him provide him- 

 self with a jumping-pole. The Fen is intersected with 

 numerous narrow and wide dykes or drains, which all empty 

 into what is called The Drove, or principal drain. 



