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RKV. E. N. BLOOMFIELD ON HEPATICLE OF NORFOLK. 
~ XII. 
HEPATHNE OF NORFOLK. 
By Rev. E. N. Bloomfield, M.A., F.E.S. 
Read 31st March , 1903. 
The county of Norfolk, like the rest of the Eastern counties, has 
no hills worthy of the name ; the air is dry and the rainfall less than 
that of the western part of England. We cannot therefore expect 
that any large number of the Hepaticae should be found in the 
county, since they generally require a moist climate. In Norfolk, 
however, the British Hepaticae seem to have been most diligently 
studied early in last century, especially by the Rev. R. B. Francis, 
and to him is due the first discovery in Britain of several very 
interesting species : these were mostly found by him at Holt and 
Edgefield, and we are indebted to Sir W. J. Hooker for the record 
of Mr. Francis’ more notable discoveries. There were at that time, 
however, several good botanists from whom we have records of 
Norfolk Hepaticae ; of these I might mention Sir W. J. Hooker . 
himself, Mr. Dawson Turner of Yarmouth, and Messrs Woodward 
and Stone of Bungay ; but since the early part of the last century 
very little attention has been given to this class of plants, as far as 
Norfolk is concerned. 
Within the last two or three years, however, a few fresh obser- 
vations have been made by Mr. E. M. Holmes of Sevenoaks, Kent, 
and by Mr. W. H. Burrell of Sheringham. The majority of their 
specimens were collected in the same localities which Mr. Francis 
investigated so successfully, and it is very interesting to find that 
most of the species observed by him about a hundred years ago are 
still found in the same stations. 
