SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



291 



THE PRESERVATION OF WICKEN FEN. 



By Herbert Goss, F.L.S. 



\^7"ITH the exception of scattered portions of 

 marsh and swamp in the Norfolk Broads 

 district, and a few narrow strips by the side of the 

 Great Northern Railway Company's line between 

 Holme and Yaxley in Huntingdonshire, no part of 

 the great Fenland of Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Cam- 

 bridgeshire and Huntingdonshire now remains in 

 its primeval state, but the few hundred acres of 

 undrained and uncultivated land known as Wicken 

 Fen, Cambridgeshire. This last fragment of 

 virgin Fen is situated about ten or eleven miles 

 north-east of Cambridge, some six miles south- 

 east of Ely, and three miles south-west of Soham. 

 The Fens have, like the chalk district in that 

 county, undergone great changes since the begin- 

 ning of the century. The late Professor Babington 

 in his " Flora of Cambridgeshire," published in 

 i860, remarks that " The employment of steam 

 has made the removal of the water so certain 

 that nearly the whole level may be cited as a 

 pattern in farming. With the water many of 

 the most interesting and characteristic plants 

 have disappeared, or are become so exceedingly 

 rare that the discovery of single individuals of 

 them is a subject for wonder and congratulation. 

 There is scarcely a spot remaining (I only know of 

 one near Wicken) in which the ancient vegetation 

 continues undisturbed, and the land is sufficiently 

 wet to allow of its coming to perfection." 



Not only has the drainage of the Fens destroyed, 

 or rendered very scarce, many of the birds and 

 plants of the district, but certain insects which 

 occurred in no other parts of the United Kingdom 

 have become extinct or extremely rare. With 

 the reclaiming, or rather destruction, of Whittlesea 

 Mere, Yaxley, and Holme Fens, that brilliant 

 butterfly, the large copper (Polyommatus dispar) 

 disappeared, no specimens having, it is believed, 

 been taken since 1847 or 1848. The loss of 

 this species is the more to be regretted 

 as the Continental form is not identical with 

 it. Since Burwell Fen, adjoining Wicken, has 

 been drained, one of the most local British moths, 

 Orgyia coenosa, has become extinct, or so rare as 

 to render its present existence questionable; and 

 the Fen orchis (Sturmia loeselii), according to the 

 late Professor Babington, has not been found there 

 since 1836. It still occurs in a swamp on private 

 property, known only to a few persons, not many 

 miles distant, and also in the Norfolk Broads. 

 The grandest of all British butterflies, the 

 swallow-tail (Papilio machaon), occurred in profu- 

 sion over the whole district before the drainage 

 and consequent destruction of its principal food- 



plant, milk-parsley (Peucedanum palustre). The 

 detached portions of Fens in the Norfolk Broads 

 still afford protection to the swallow-tail, where it 

 occurs, somewhat sparingly, over a wide area. 

 Wicken Fen, however, is certainly its head- 

 quarters in England, and this noble insect may 

 be seen there throughout the summer, most plenti- 

 fully about the end of May and beginning of June, 

 soaring over the sedge, or sailing up and down the 

 grassy roads, or "droves" — as they are termed 

 locally, — in the Fen. 



The drainage of this Fen and its subsequent 

 cultivation would not only be the destruction 

 of the headquarters of this butterfly, but of 

 numerous local moths, and of the distinctive Fen 

 flora. Portions of this Fen are often " in the 

 market " for sale, and the National Trust are 

 desirous of securing a few acres from time to time, 

 when practicable, so that they may be retained in 

 their primeval state, not only for the benefit of 

 zoologists and botanists, but for all members of 

 the public interested in the preservation of this 

 last remnant of the picturesque and characteristic 

 Fenland of East Anglia. 



With the drainage of Wicken Fen many local moths 

 would become extinct, or extremely rare, such as 

 the fen-leopard or reed moth (Macrogaster arundinis), 

 Cidaria saglttata, Meliana flammea, Tapinostola 

 hellmamii, Hydrilla palustris, Nascia cilialis, and other 

 interesting species. Many of the typical plants of 

 the district would also disappear from this locality, 

 for instance, the spear wort {Ranunculus lingua), 

 Viola stagnina, the beautiful marsh vetch (Lathyrus 

 palustris), the water-parsnip (Slum latifolium), milk- 

 parsley (Peucedanum palustre), Valeriana dioica, that 

 local thistle, Carduus pratensis, the water-violet 

 (Hottouia palustris), the common bladder- wort (Utri- 

 cularia vulgaris), Orchis . incarnata, the fen - fern 

 (Lastraea thelypteris), and last, but not least, the 

 sedge (Cladium mariscus), which constitutes the mass 

 of the herbage of the Fen, and which was formerly 

 a valuable crop. 



Entomological Society, Chandos Street, 



Cavendish Square, W.; 17th February, 1899. 



[We cordially endorse the proposal for preserv- 

 ing Wicken Fen as a sanctuary for wild animal and 

 plant life natural to the district. Indeed, we have 

 already advocated this reservation in an article on 

 the " Preservation of Our Fauna and Flora ". 

 (Science-Gossip, N.S. vol. ii. p. 169, Sept. 1895), 

 wherein Wicken Fen was mentioned. We hope 

 our readers will take up this question, and that 

 Mr. Goss may be as successful in this agitation as 

 he was in a former instance. Much was due to 

 his influence and energy in saving the New Forest 

 for public recreation ground. — Ed. S.-G.] 



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