A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



yet the number of specimens to be obtained in certain localities has much 

 diminished, and it is to be hoped that collectors will recognize this fact 

 and spare them as much as possible, but it seems not unlikely that in 

 some parts of the county, owing to the deplorable depression of agriculture, 

 a few of the lighter lands will ' go back to warren,' thus possibly afford- 

 ing asylum and offering a chance of increase to some of our specially 

 hard-pressed rarities. On the other hand drainage is always being 

 extended, thus last summer the upper pond at Antingham — one of the 

 sources of the river Ant, which, much grown up by marsh and water 

 plants, has been a sure locality for many plants — has had a deep, wide 

 trench dug down the midde of it, the effect of which must be in a few 

 years to ruin it botanically. 



There can be but few of the counties of England which can claim 

 as many specialties in species and varieties as Norfolk. Naias marim and 

 Carex trinervis are found in it alone, as is also Sonchus angustifolius. Rubus 

 Lintoni, Carex ligerica, C. paradoxa, Ammophila baltica^ in but one other 

 county only respectively, viz. Somerset, the Scilly Isles, Yorkshire, 

 Northumberland. In addition it shares in the East Anglian specialties, 

 Silene otites, Holosteum umbellatum, Medkago falcata and M. syhestris, Statice 

 reticulata. Primula elatior, Jacq., Verbascum puherulentum, Veronica verna, 

 Liparis Loeselii, Carex ericetorum, Apera interrupta, and Weingcertneria 

 canescens, in fact it may almost be doubted, if judged on precisely equal 

 terms, whether any other of the lowland counties of England exceeds 

 it in number of species ; of course comparison with such counties as 

 Devon or Yorkshire, the latter three times the size of Norfolk, and both 

 with the advantage of mountains, would be absurd. 



No account of the Norfolk flora however short can be considered 

 even passably complete without mention of the distinguished botanists 

 who have been born or lived in the county within the last hundred and 

 fifty years. Sir James Edward Smith, 1759-1 828, author oi English Botany, 

 1790-18 14; Flora Britannica, i 800-1 804; English Flora, i 824-1 828, 

 who did so much for the study of botany in England by the purchase 

 of Linnasus's Herbarium in 1783 and the formation of the Linnaean 

 Society of which he was 'projector and president' in 1788. Dawson 

 Turner of Yarmouth, 1775-1858, author of The Botanist's Guide, 1805, 

 and History of Fuci, 1808. Sir William Jackson Hooker, 1785-1865, 

 born at Norwich, author of British Jungermannice, 1 8 1 6 ; Muscologia 

 Britannica, 1818-1827 ; Flora Scotica, 1821 ; and British Flora, 1830, 

 besides other works on botany too numerous to mention, Vice-President 

 of the Linnsan Society and Director of the Royal Gardens at Kew. 

 John Lindley, Ph.D., F.R.S., born at Catton, 1 799-1 865, author of 

 Synopsis of the British Flora, 1820, and Vegetable Kingdom, 1846. These 

 occupy the first rank among our local botanists of note. Nor must we 

 omit those lesser hghts whose names are frequently occurring in the 

 botanical Uterature of the same period. T. J. Woodward (of Diss), 

 James Crowe, Hugh Rose, John Pitchford, Lilly Wigg (of Yarmouth), 

 the Revs. H. Bryant and R. B. Francis, S. P. Woodward, the Rev. G, 



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