154 FEN AND DITCH PLANTS OF NORFOLK. [-^«2/^ 



consistency, asserts that this fine aquatic is wild in Norfolk, 

 Cambridge, etc., which he calls its north limit, but that it is cer- 

 tainly introduced in Stafford, Lancashire, etc. (see ' Cybele,' vol. 

 ii. p. 178), and doubtfully wild in the intermediate counties of 

 Warwick and Nottingham. He does not inform us on what evi- 

 dence he relies for these facts. Probably only his own eyes, 

 which deceived him in estimating the altitude of the moors of 

 Devon, where he saw the marsh Hypericum much higher than 

 the mountains of North Wales. 



Stratiotes aloides in July and August is common in the 

 ditches at Eanworth. [The readers of the ' Phytologist ' may 

 prefer a brief account of the economy of this plant to the useless 

 platitudes of the 'Cybele^ about its distribution. Those who 

 care for seeing a sample of unmeaning twaddle, may compare 

 'Cybele,^ vol. ii. pp. 473, 474, with what he has seen or read 

 about the plant.] This plant is very singular in its mode of 

 growth. The numerous radical leaves which spring from its 

 creeping runners, which penetrate far into the mud, and its exotic- 

 like aspect, its flowers, its compressed scape, make an uncommon 

 object. In a ditch that some men were cleaning out, I saw its 

 spreading roots more than three feet deep in the mud, and at 

 least six feet in some places from the body of the plant. It seems 

 to occur all over the Fens, by the rivers Bure, Yare, and Waveney, 

 and several other places in ditches at Loddon, Kirby, Norton, 

 and Toft. If this plant is not a genuine native of England, it is 

 at all events spontaneous in Norfolk. 



The last of my aquatic plants is Potamogeton oblongus, com- 

 mon at Ranworth, and it flowers in July. This family is well 

 represented in our neighbourhood, both in Norfolk and Suffolk. 

 Here many of the rarer species like the above are common. I 

 intend to send, in the course of the present summer (1861), a 

 series of our Potamacete for publication in the ' Phytologist,' in 

 order to induce British botanists to pay a visit to this almost 

 terra incognita of the British realm. 



