BOTANICAL RESEARCH. 23 



B. BOTANICAL RESEARCH. 



Though Harleston itself can claim but few native botanists, 

 yet the district has not remained unnoticed or un worked. 

 Little, it is true, has hitherto been recorded for its northern 

 and western limits, but on the east and south observations have 

 been carried on for a period of over eighty years. 



(i.) Past Observers. Attention was first called to the 

 floral characteristics by Mr. T. J. Woodward, F.L.S., who for 

 a long time resided at Bungay, and supplied information to the 

 well-known Botanist's Guide of 1805, and to the later editions 

 of Withering's Arrangement of the British Flora. Additional 

 observations were furnished by him to the New Botanist's 

 Guide (1835), together with those of a younger botanist, resi- 

 dent in the same town, Mr. Daniel Stock. Mr. Stock's records 

 are deprived of much of their value for our present purpose by 

 their vagueness, as in most cases his various localities are 

 included under the name of the town in \vhich he lived. Such 

 as they are, however, they supply the chief information of the 

 neighbourhood in Henslow and Skepper's Flora of Suffolk, 

 published in 1860. Mr. Stock furnished additional notes to 

 the Rev. Kirby Trimmer, who in 1866 edited the result of his 

 own inquiries and observations in the county of Norfolk, and 

 has brought them up to date by a Supplement published a short 

 time ago. 



Meanwhile, a careful examination of the country around 

 Harleston was being made by the Rev. E. A. Holmes, F.L.S., 

 late Rector of St. Margaret's, South Elmham. Commencing 

 his observations on his institution to the living in the year 

 1833, -he continued them for more than fifty years, keeping an 

 annual record for at least half that period. Unfortunately, in 

 this case also, an absence of specified localities detracts in a 

 great measure from the extreme value of his work. This 

 deficiency has been somewhat counteracted by the personal 

 knowledge which it was the writer's privilege to have of Mr. 

 Holmes. During many botanical rambles and conversations 

 opportunity was given for identifying the localities of the rarer 

 plants, and even of verifying some of the records of Mr. Stock. 

 The notes thns made, with a few written sud manu in an inter- 

 leaved copy of the Botanist's Guide, have proved of great 

 assistance in determining the localities of other plants in the 

 annual lists, which, through the kindness of Mrs. Holmes, 

 have been inspected for the purposes of this Flora. Mr. 

 Holmes' long residence in the neighbourhood, his complete 

 knowledge of the subject, and intimate acquaintance with the 



