96 
MR. T. SOUTHWELL ON THE RAISING OF LYCOPODIUM. 
XI. 
ON THE RAISING OF LYCOPODIUM FROM SPORES 
FIRST BY A NORWICH WEAVER. 
By Thomas Southwell, F.Z.S., V.-P. 
Read 27 th March, 1900. 
In an interesting letter containing biographical memoirs of several 
Norwich Botanists, written by Sir J. E. Smith to the Linnean 
Society,* dated Norwich, 14tli January, 1804, and called forth by 
the death of his friend Mr. John Pitchford, whom he describes as 
“the last of a School of Botanists” in Norwich (that distinguished 
botanist being himself a Norwich man), refers to the great love for 
the cultivation of flowers which existed amongst the journeymen 
weavers and other persons in a humble sphere of life in that city, 
adding that there were amongst them others very distinct from mere 
florists who “herborised” in the country and made important 
additions to scientific botany, so that “ in this town .... 
the writings and merits of Linnaeus were, perhaps, more early, or 
at least more philosophically studied and appreciated, than in any 
part of Britain.” 
This letter was communicated to our Society in November, 1874, 
by the late Mr. Hampden Glasspoole, and was printed in its 
‘Transactions,’ vol. ii. p. 25. It contains a statement that one “of 
these humble cultivators of science, Mr. Joseph Fox,” was the 
first person who ever raised Lycopodium from seed. Sir James 
Smith had referred to this discovery in a previous communication 
to the Linnaean Society, and as the early volumes of the ‘Trans- 
actions ’ of that Society are not very accessible, and it appears 
desirable more fully to record so interesting a fact in our local 
publication — more especially as it conveys a graceful compliment 
to an observer otherwise unknown to fame, the expression of which 
# Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. vii. p. 295. 
