394 NOTES ON NORFOLK PLANTS. [Octobcr, 



nium was ever a garden species^ and that therefore it could be 

 no escape from cultivation. Whether there be any validity in 

 this argument or not I will not try to determine^ but it is certain 

 that this plant is not now one of our cultivated productions. 

 There is no good reason for believing that it ever enjoyed this 

 honour, except in botanical collections, and no marvel, seeing 

 there are so many hardy herbaceous members of the same family 

 far more showy and far more common than this one is. 



Although this plant was well known, and not unaptly de- 

 scribed by Hudson, {' Flora Anglica,^ p. 65, ed. i. : G. perenne 

 habitat in pratis montosis, it grows in upland or hilly pastures, 

 also prope (near) Enfield ; et inter (and between) Hyde Park and 

 Little Chelsea), yet it is not noticed by Ray nor by his learned 

 editor Billenius. It is the large-flowered G. molle of Curtis, 

 who, like Linnaeus, combined it with G, molle of more recent 

 authors. 



Althaea officinalis is very common in marshes about Ran- 

 worth ?, and in other parts near the coast. 



The rare Leguminifers are well represented in our district : for 

 example, we have Medicago falcata, frequent in pastures and 

 fields near Ran worth; and the white flowers of Melilotus vul- 

 garis are very conspicuous and ornamental on the sandhills about 

 Yarmouth, where this suspected alien is very abundant. Tii- 

 folium subterraneum grows at Ranworth, but it is not one of 

 our frequent plants. T. medium is plentiful in our pastures, and 

 T. maritimum also on the seashore, especially in salt-marshes 

 near Breydon, Yarmouth. T. procumhens abounds everywhere ; 

 passim occurrit, as the ancient botanists used to describe the fre- 

 quency of very common plants. T. suffocatum grows on the sandy 

 shores near Lowestoft, but it is not common nor even frequent. 

 Lathyrus palustris is found sparingly in the Ranworth bogs; 

 and Astragalus Glycyphyllus occurs here and there in the woods 

 near Aldeby, The above is a highly respectable company of the 

 members of one family, all found in a corner of a very flat, uni- 

 form county, with as little variety of surface-elevation as any of 

 our English counties. 



Spiraa Filipendula grows sparingly in pastures near Fritton?, 

 and is in flower in July. Geum rivale and Comarum palustre are 

 common in wet and boggy parts. Fragaria elatior is found in 

 the grounds (? what grounds, woods or wastes ?) at Wheatacre 



