266 WILD LIFE ON A NORFOLK ESTUARY 



many days at a stretch ; and when, even on the neap tides, 

 at low water, two or three feet of water covered portions of 

 Breydon that to-day are bare at half-tide. ... It was a plant 

 after the habit of Zoster a marina, which grew white flowers 

 above, and little white knobs below. It was for these 'knobs' 

 that the large flocks of pochards used to visit Breydon where, 

 except in the severest winters, they may now be looked upon 

 almost as rarities. I can find nothing of the kind to-day. . . . 



"JOHN KNOWLITTLE." 



I received the following replies : 



" RUSSELL SQUARE, LONDON. 



" DEAR MR. PATTERSON, 



" I am staying here just at present, but I read your 

 letter re ' poka-grass' in the D. Press with much interest. It 

 struck me I might gather some information upon it at the 

 Natural History Museum at S. Kensington, so to-day I went 



there and showed your letter to Mr. B and Mr. G 



The latter is the compiler of the new edition of Babington. 

 . . . They referred to different catalogues, but could find 

 nothing that corresponded to description. I suggested the 

 plant might be Zanichellia palustris, but that these had not 

 white flowers, but there are found little seed vessels closely 

 packed along the stems, which might look tempting to a 

 pochard. This likes both fresh, saline, and salt water. At 

 the same time I have no doubt it is common about Breydon, 

 and would not be likely to have disappeared. 



" F. L. (Norwich}." 



"OuLTON BROAD, November, 1905. 



" DEAR SIR, In response to your request in the Daily 

 Press, I will roughly give you a little of my experience. 

 . . . You can make what use you like of it. Had you 

 named the man who gave you the information regarding 

 Breydon, I should probably have been able to tell you 

 something of his repute fifty years ago, when the Lower 

 Run [North Wall drain] took one in a gunboat to Rotten 

 Eye up to half-tide. Fringing the channel was hard mud, 

 getting softer towards the North Wall, and a bottomless 

 swamp reached from Rotten Eye to DuffeH's rond ! Be- 

 tween the hard and the soft mud grew what you call 

 'widgeon-grass,' but at that time was dubbed 'goose-grass' 

 by gunners, known as ' alva ' to upholsterers, and I think as 

 Zostera to scientists, abounding from the channel to the 

 north bank above Duffell's rond. Rotten Eye also abounded 

 in what we called 'cabbage' \Ulva lactuca\ but the poker- 



