472 



THE PKOGRESS OF BOTANICAL STUDY IN 

 SUFFOLK. 



|HE Materials, from which an account of Botanical Progress in Suf- 

 folk may be gathered, are far from ample ; and for the most part 



fare connected with the present and last centuries. The position 

 of the County, removed from the Capital, the Universities, the 

 Cathedral Cities, and other chief seats of learning in England, 

 was not such as would lead to the early study of Natural Science, or 

 foster its growth. No early written records of the plants of Suffolk are 

 known to exist. In fact, for our first step in Suffolk Botany, we must 

 go back to a somewhat doubtful interpretation of an historical monu- 

 ment. In some prse-reformation glass in Gislingham Church, the 

 Columbine, Aquilegia vulgaris. is represented. The flower is of the single 

 type, which is more usual in the wild, than in the cultivated plant. 

 Similar flowers have been recently found in the neighbouring parish of 

 Yaxley by the Rev. W. H. Sewell, who regards the painting as the record 

 of a plant grown on the spot in the fifteenth century, or even earlier. 



Coming down to written history, the earliest mention of a Suffolk 

 plant is the Sea Pea, Lathyrus maritimus. The following account, partly 

 legendary, is given by Martyn in his edition of Miller. ' We learn from 

 the epistles of the learned Caius that the Sea Pea was first observed in 

 the year 1555, when in a great scarcity, the poor people on the coast of 

 Suffolk about Orford and Aldborough supported themselves with it for 

 some time. This story is retailed by Snow and Camden ; with the 

 addition, that they were supposed to spring up opportunely in that 

 year of dearth, from a ship-wrecked vessel loaded with Peas : whereas 

 the Sea Pea differs from all the varieties of the garden or field Pea, in 

 the length and continuance of its roots, the smallness and bitterness of 

 its seed, and in the whole habit and appearance of the plant. It had 

 probably grown a long time on Orford Beach unobserved, till extreme 

 want called it into public notice. The seed is so bitter that it could 

 not be eaten, except in a want of better food, and it is certainly not 

 used at present, though it might be gathered in sufficient quantity ; nay, 

 it is neglected by the very birds. The legend of the miraculous arrival 



