I860.] A day's collecting at LOWESTOFT. 35 



which is crossed by a bridge which thus connects the two parts 

 of the town. The new town lies to the south of the harbour^ 

 and consists of new seaside lodging-houses facing the sea, and 

 behind them are flat damp fields and marshes. About a mile 

 south of Lowestoft lies the maritime village of Pakefield ; thence 

 to South woldj some eight miles further down, the coast, are low 

 sandy cliffs, with cornfields on their top, and beneath them a 

 very sandy seashore. North of Lowestoft is an extensive heath 

 of about four miles in length (north to south) , which slopes down 

 to the sea, and below which lie the " Denes," which are sandy 

 flats overgrown with grass and maritime plants ; this is perhaps 

 the most productive locality. At the back of the town there are 

 only farms and fields in a high state of cultivation, with nothing 

 much in a botanical point of view. 



After this short but necessary preamble on the dullest of 

 scenery, I will now proceed to mention the plants of Lowestoft, 

 and I prefer doing this in a colloquial way than to giving a mere 

 list followed by exact habitats, which, though perhaps useful to 

 a scientific botanist or to one who knows the locality treated of, 

 is very unattractive to one who, like myself, takes in a botanical 

 periodical for amusement as well as instruction, and who does 

 not take sufficient interest in the geography of the place men- 

 tioned to care about the precise locality of a plant growing there. 



On a fine morning, then, in August, 1859, I set out with vas- 

 culum, digger, and portfolio, determined to get something or 

 other, along the shore toward Pakefield. On the sand grew S. 

 Kali, together with Cakile maritima and Atriplex arenaria. 

 Erynghim maritimum was also common. On mu^Troiind the 

 harbour I found Atriplex littoralis and Suaeda maritima, and on 

 waste places near, Linum usitaiissimum and Diplotaxis tenuifolia 

 (some specimens three or four feet high) were common ; I also 

 found here a curious specimen of Achillea Millefolium in which 

 the ray-florets were reduced to almost '' nil," and the segments 

 of the leaves very few and undivided. 



Continuing my course along the shore, near Pakefield, on an 

 artificial bank facing the sea, Reseda lutea had established itself, 

 growing among Echium vulgare, Helminthia echioides, etc. A 

 little way inland, near here, I found Reseda svffruticulQsa grow- 

 ing spontaneously (I do not say indigenously) on rubbish in 

 plenty, as in many other places round the town. A little beyond 



