A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



I.— THE EASTERN DIVISION 



This division, designated by an ' £ ' in the tables of species, is bounded on the east by 

 the sea and on the west by a line drawn perpendicularly on the map passing through Norwich 

 and terminating northward at Cromer and southward at the river Waveney, which forms the 

 boundary of the county just to the east of Harleston. Travelling northward along the coast 

 from Yarmouth there is a flat sandy and shingly beach without cliffs as far as Happisburgh ; 

 from thence to Cromer there are cliffs varying in height, their highest point at Trimingham 

 being about 250 feet above the sea. These cliffs are composed of sand, gravel and clay with 

 chalk at Trimingham. Where the cliffs begin the flora changes, the sand-loving grasses still 

 hold their own to some extent on the shore, but on the cliffs themselves and on their summits 

 grow sometimes in considerable quantities Orobanche coerulea (its host being Achillea Millefolium), 

 Ophrys apifera and Equisetum maximum. The seaward surface of these cliffs is continually 

 changing as they slip into the sea from the action of the landsprings which undermine the 

 lower portion of their face, and there are thus formed many little undercliffs which, existing 

 for a few years, are the homes of many interesting plants, until in their turn both soil and 

 plants fall on the beach and are washed away. 



From the harbour's mouth at Yarmouth for about five miles, with the exception of the 

 front of the town, extend the South and North Denes, which have been, and are still to some 

 extent, though sadly injured in a botanical view by use as camping grounds, golf links, etc., 

 the localities of a peculiar vegetation of their own, consisting principally of minute Cerastia, 

 many Trifolia, Lotus, Galium, Ononis and dwarf grasses ; among the latter JFeingartneria 

 canescens and Poa bulbosa, and in the deep sand near the beach grow Ammophila arundinacea and A. 

 haltica, Elymus arenarius with Tritica, Festuca arenaria and Carex arenaria, which with their 

 long creeping roots bind the loose sand together and enable it to resist the sea. At Caistor 

 Thalictrum dunense still grows, and at Hemsby Mr. Wigg is said to have found Crithmum 

 maritimum more than a century ago, but it has not been heard of since. Atriplex pedunculata 

 unquestionably grew within the county limits, as there are specimens from Runham in Sir 

 James Paget's Herbarium in the Norwich Castle Museum, but careful search in the last few 

 years has failed to rediscover it. 



Within the coast-line, approaching very near the sea at its northernmost corner, lies what 

 is known as the ' Norfolk Broad ' country, occupying an irregularly-shaped patch of about 

 eight miles by twelve from Filby Broad in the south to Horsey Mere in the north, and from 

 the latter point east to Wroxham Broad in the west. These shallow freshwater lakes com- 

 municate directly or indirectly with the river Bure, and were estimated by Mr. H. B. 

 Woodward in 1881 to cover about 1,500 acres, and were considered by Mr. Gunn to 

 be ' growing up ' at the rate of one foot in twenty years. This district has two species of 

 plants not found elsewhere in Great Britain, Naias marina, discovered in 1883 by Mr. 

 Arthur Bennett, and Carex trinervis, first found in 1884 by the late Hampden G. Glasspoole ; 

 it contains also many other rare plants, such as Senecio palustris, Liparis Loeselii and Carex 

 paradoxa. The water of the broads is crowded with Batrachian Ranunculi, white and 

 yellow water-lilies, Stratiotes aloides, Potamogetons and Utriculariae ; and their margins are 

 thick with Cladium Jamaicense, Scirpi and reeds, and hosts of Lythrum Salicaria, Lysimachia 

 vulgaris and the commoner kinds of orchids, and on the banks of some of these broads there is 

 plenty of Pyrola rotundifoHa. The latest records of Sonchus palustris in this division are those of 

 of the late Rev. Kirby Trimmer in 1873 to 1876, and it is not known to have been found since. 



The northern portion of this division between the coast-line, the Broad country, and the 

 western boundary line is mostly arable, very few small patches of the original heathy, sandy or 

 boggy soil being left as common or waste. Wherever there is a bog however small there 

 abound Drosera rotundifoHa, D. intermedia and D. anglica, and an apparent hybrid between 

 D. rotundifoHa and D. anglica, resembling the D. obovata of the west coast of Scotland, has 

 occurred. Pinguicula vulgaris is very common, but the rarest plant of these bogs is Limosella 

 aquatica. On the drier parts of the heaths there are three gentians, Gentiana Amarella, 

 G. campestris and G. Pneumonantbe. G. haltica has been identified by Murbeck from one 

 locality ; and on dry banks, or by the roadsides, there are three mulleins, Ferbascum Thapsus, 

 V. pulverulentum and F. nigrum, and hybrids between the two latter are not unfrequent. 



The city of Norwich, which is included in this division, has, or rather had, on its old 

 city walls several rare plants, Holosteum umbellatum, Teucrium Chameedrys and Muscari racemosum, 

 but as the walls themselves disappear so must the plants, which can hardly be considered 



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