A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



III.— THE SOUTH-CENTRAL DIVISION 



This division, designated by ' SC' in the tables of species, is bounded on the north by a line 

 drawn from SwafFham to Norwich, on the east by a line from Norwich to a point a little 

 east of Harleston, on the west by a line from Swaffham to Santon Downham, and on the 

 south by the rivers Little Ouse and Waveney, which form the boundary of the county. It is 

 particularly interesting for the flora of the dry sandy and calcareous country running north 

 from Thetford, in which case plants of a dry sand-loving district are to some extent mixed 

 with others originally maritime, the remnants of a flora formerly occupying the beaches of a 

 strait which separated Norfolk from the rest of East Anglia. 



Among the species which are found on these low hills are Si/ene Otites, Arenaria tenuifolia, 

 in more than one form ; Medicago minima, Veronica verna and V. triphyllos, Scleranthus perennis, 

 Carex arenaria, and C. ericetorum, Festuca amhigua and Phleum arenarium, and in the marshes by 

 the river is Rumex maritimus ; there are also Medicago sy/vestris (recorded in the county only 

 here and at Cromer), Artemisia campestris and Apera interrupta in the neighbourhood ; it is 

 strange that Veronica spicata has not been found within the county of Norfolk, as an old record 

 traces it within about a mile beyond the boundary near Thetford growing in abundance. 



The marshes near the sources of the river Waveney are the latest known habitat in the 

 county of Malaxis paludosa and they still yield Liparis Loeselii, but these marshes have become 

 distinctly drier, and the number of individuals of the rarer plants, though not perhaps the num- 

 ber of species to be found in them, has diminished within the writer's experience. 



Geranium rotundifoUum has been recorded for the county in this division only and G. 

 pyrenaicum has increased rapidly in this division of late years. Impatient NoU-me-tangere has 

 sprung up as a weed in newly-turned soil. Gnaphalium luteo-album and Andromeda polifolia 

 have both been recorded from Harling. Primula elatior, Jacq., the true oxlip grows near 

 Dickleburgh as is shown in Mr. Miller Christy's account of the distribution of that species 

 in the eastern counties. Viscum album, which is more abundant in this division than in the 

 remainder of the county, is recorded by the Rev. Kirby Trimmer as having grown on oak at 

 Shottesham, and Schollera Occycoccus is reported by Lord Walsingham as plentiful near Merton. 



Limnanthemum peltatum grows in the mere at Scoulton, and Linaria purpurea on walls at 

 Thetford. Erigeron Canademe has taken such possession at Merton that Lord Walsingham 

 writes : ' It has now almost driven E. acre out, and has increased to such an extraordinary ex- 

 tent as to affect very sensibly the colour of the landscape when its young green growth is in 

 full vigour before flowering.' 



The central portion of this division is remarkable for the number and quantity of the 

 commoner species of orchids found in it ; in some of the rougher pastures orchids when in 

 flower seem actually more plentiful than grass. Aceras anthropophora, Ophrys muscifera and 

 Habenaria viridis occur more often than in the other divisions of the county. 



At Winfarthing is an o^ known as the ' Winfarthing Oak ' of great but unknown age. 

 It is said to have been called the ' Old Oak ' in the time of William the Conqueror, but there 

 appears to be no definite authority for this legend, and the tree is not mentioned in Domes- 

 day Book. From the girth of its stem, which is now a mere shell, it has been supposed to 

 be 1,500 years old. It has a brass plate aflixed to it inscribed, 'This oak in circumference at 

 the extremities of the roots is 70 feet, in the middle 40 feet, 1820.' From the Journal 

 of R. Marsham, F.R.S., of Stratton Strawless, it measured in 1744 38 feet 7 inches, and 

 in 1874 it measured 40 feet, having increased 17 inches in 130 years, but in 1894 its 

 measurement was only 38 feet 6 inches, having shrunk 18 inches in twenty years. A full 

 account of this remarkable tree by the late T. E. Amyot will be found in the Transactions 

 of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society for 1874. 



The South-Central Division of the county has been much less worked, and there are 

 much fewer records of botanical localities in it than in the other three divisions. 



List of Species and Varieties worth noting in the South-Central Division 



Anemone ranunculoUes, Linn. Arenaria tenuifolia, Linn. 



Dianthus Armeria, Linn. A. „ v. hybrida {Vill.) 



D. deltoides, Linn. Sagina ciliata, Fr. 



Silene conica, Linn. Hypericum montanum, Linn. 



S. Otites, Pf^ibel. Geranium phacum, Linn. 



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