266 MR. W. A. NICHOLSON ON BOTANY OF SUTTON. 
We are chiefly concerned here with the Alluvium, which 
covers most of the area now under consideration. The 
alluvium consists of silt or mud, clay, loam, sand, gravel, and 
peat. I am not aware of the depth of alluvium in the Ant 
Valley, but depths of valleys are given by Mr. H. B. Wood- 
ward for Wroxham, 72 feet, and Norwich, 42 feet. The 
depth at Potter Heigham has been stated as 56 feet, but 
I have unfortunately mislaid the reference. 
It is well-known that some of the best agricultural land in 
England is situated in the district lying between Sutton and 
the sea. 
Dr. James Geikie says, “ Soils .... tend to travel 
down slopes, however gentle these may be.” Therefore it 
does not seem unreasonable to suppose that the alluvial soil 
of the marshes contains many of the constituents of the rich 
soil of the higher ground. 
Mr. H. B. Woodward refers in his ‘ Memoir of the Geology 
of the country around Norwich,’ to an analysis of soil from 
Sutton made by Dr. Lyon Playfair, and reported in the Journ. 
Roy. Agri. Society, vol. vi., part II, p. 5 77. The note in 
the Journal is headed “ Analysis of the Soil and Subsoil of 
a very Productive field near Sutton, in Norfolk.” The date 
is 1845. Amongst other constituents the soil was found to 
contain 2.10 % of carbonate of lime, and a trace of chlorine, 
whilst the subsoil yielded .09 % of carbonate of lime, and 
2.08 % of chloride of sodium. Dr. Playfair considered that the 
larger amount of common salt in the subsoil was only explicable 
on the supposition that it had been washed by the rains from 
the upper soil to the lower, and that the origin of the salt was 
due to the proximity to the sea. Rain-water falling in places 
near the sea has been found to contain a larger percentage of 
chlorine than when collected in inland situations. 
It is not proposed in this paper to give a list of all the plants 
that have been found, but to draw attention especially, to 
those which are most characteristic of the marshy and aquatic 
regions of this part of the Broads’ district. 
There is very little, if any, of the kind of wet common, such 
as at Honing and East Ruston, represented here. This type 
