BOTANY 



sources, such as the examination of many private herbaria inaccessible to most, and compiling 

 a readable and interesting book, and from it much of this account of Suffolk botanists has 

 been derived. Dr. Hind died suddenly whilst addressing a meeting in 1894, and left a 

 collection of Suffolk specimens, illustrating, in a large measure, his Flora ^ to the Ipswich 

 Museum. Dr. Hind's Flora and, by the kindness of the museum authorities, the specimens 

 illustrating it, have been of great value in preparing this paper upon Suffolk plants, but it has 

 been found necessary to omit some of the species included in the Flora as the examples 

 representing them in the museum are insufScient or incorrectly named. In compiling material 

 for his work Dr. Hind was very considerably helped by the Rev. Churchill Babington, rector 

 of Cockfield (whose name appears on the title-page of the Flora), who undoubtedly intended 

 to become joint editor, but unfortunately his death in January 1889 prevented this. 



Many lists and actual specimens were examined by Dr. Hind, the chief contributors 

 being the following : — Herbarium and lists of Sir C. J. F. Bunbury (1809-86) of Mildenhall 

 and Barton, who found Scirpus rufus and Phleum phalarotdes ; Mrs. French of Woolpit, who 

 botanized in the south-west of the county and discovered Vicia gracilis, CEnanthe fluviatiln^ 

 Myoiotis sylvatica, and Polygonum maculatum ; Rev. G. R. Leathes of Shropham Hall, who 

 found Malaxii paludosa and Allium oleraceum ; and lastly, Dr. Hind himself, who added to 

 the county Fumarta demijiora, Filago gallica, Mentha gentilis, Luzula Forsteri, and Bromus 

 madritensis. 



Botanists of the past have also to be reckoned with in compiling first evidences of the 

 Flora of a county, and it would appear that the earliest mention of a Suffolk plant may be 

 found in Miller's Gardener^i Dictionary, ed. 8 (1768), where it records the fact(!) that Lathyrus 

 OT(7r/WOT«j sustained the people of Orford during a time of scarcity in 1555. The passage 

 runs : — 



The English Sea Pea is found wild upon the shore in Sussex and several other counties in 

 England. This was first taken notice of in the year 1555 between Orford and Aldborough, 

 where it grew upon the heath where nothing, no, not grass, was ever seen to grow ; and the 

 poor people being in distress by reason of the dearth that year, gathered large quantities of 

 these peas and so preserved themselves and families. This is mentioned by Stowe in his 

 Chronicle and Camden in his Britannia, but they were both mistaken in imagining that they 

 were peas cast on shore by a shipwreck, seeing they grow in divers other parts of England and 

 are undoubtedly a different species from the common Pea. 



The following botanists, of more than British fame in the olden days and now, should 

 also be noted : — John Caius [alias Key) (15 10-73), who again reported Lathyrus maritimus ; 

 John Gerard (1545-1612) of Herbal fame, who noticed Astragalus danicus and Elymus 

 arenarius ; William How (1619-56), who mentioned in his Phytologia Britannica that Si lene 

 Otites had been found by Mr. Sare ; the well-known John Ray (i 627-1 705), whose Synopsis 

 added Frankenia laevis, Medicago minima, Trifolium glomeratum, Cicuta virosa, and Scleranthus 

 perennis ; Adam Buddie, who died in 1 7 15 and for a time had his home at Henley in Suffolk, 

 is credited with finding Medicago falcata, Lathyrus palustris, Eryngium campestre, Equisetum 

 hyemale, znd Lycopodium clavatum ; James Sherard (1666-1737), vvho had a remarkable garden 

 at Eltham, Kent, and who is responsible for Hellehorus foetidus, Senecio palustris, and Sonchus 

 palustris; J. J. Dillenius (1687-1747), of German nationality, brought to England by 

 W. Sherard (elder brother of above), who included in his edition of Ray's Synopsis, Verbascum 

 pulverulentum, Thesium humifusum, and Urtica pilulifera ; T. Willisell, who flourished in 

 Merrett, Ray, and Sherard's days, and collected plants for them all over the United Kingdom, 

 and who found Artemisia campestris and Veronica triphyllos ; James Crowe, of Salix fame, who 

 died in 1807 and who reported Daphne Mezereum and Fritillaria Meleagris ; Sir J. E. Smith 

 (1759-1828), the founder of the Linnean Society, who mentioned in his Flora Britannica, 

 Silene conica, Sedum albescens, Diotis candidissima, Chcnopodium botryodes, Panicum glabrum, Wein- 

 gaertneria canescens and Poa bulbosa ; and W. Borrer (1781-1862), the Sussex botanist, who 

 'bund Limosella aquatica and Tolypella intricata. 



BOTANICAL DISTRICTS 



Tr. H. C. Watson, in Topographical Botany, has divided the county, for botanical pur- 

 poses to East and West Suffolk (vice-counties 25 and 26), the boundary line being I deg. 

 east Ic.jitude, but this is (as he himself says) 'not a good division because traceable on maps 

 only, unseen on the ground.' In the Rev. W. M. Hind's Flora of Suffolk, the county was 



51 



