56 MR. W. G. CLARKE ON THE COMMONS OF NORFOLK. 
probably meant — has been enclosed, ploughed, and partly 
planted with trees, for several decades. 
Commons are usually the least productive land in the 
county, and as a consequence generally consist either of 
low land bordeiing water-courses with coarse pasturage, 
J uncus and Carex, or uneven heathy land with a furze, bracken 
and heather association. But though there is a general 
resemblance between the commons of the county, there are 
many local differences consequent upon changes in soil, the 
heathy commons upon the chalk lands of the west differing 
from those oir the crag north of Norwich, or on the glacial 
gravels and boulder clay to the south. Even on the common 
marshes there is a difference between those in the valleys 
of the Little Ouse and Waveney, those in the Wensum valley, 
and the “ wet ” commons of East Norfolk. 
Having never been cultivated and in many cases rarely 
subject to alteration by man, these commons are among the 
most intei'esting parts of the county to the naturalist, for 
on them to a much greater degree than elsewhere there has 
been an almost undisturbed succession of fauna and flora 
from post-glacial times, Yet notwithstanding this I cannot 
find that any individual commons have ever been adequately 
described with the exception of that at East Ruston.* Nor 
do they appear, even in such a county of naturalists as 
Norfolk has been for the past century, ever to have x'eceived 
the attention they deseiwe from workers in any branch of 
science. It is true that some of the workei's in Norwich, 
for example, are familiar with a few of the local commons 
and visit them sporadically for the purpose of natui’e-study, 
but it is obvious that any desci'iption of a common, to be at 
all complete needs to be the result of observations extended 
over at least a year, and during most of the twelve months. 
To compile a list of Norfolk commons from my own 
knowledge and by soliciting the help of a number of coi'res- 
pondents seemed to me impossible. My method has therefore 
been to examine carefully all the Ordxxance Survey Sheets of 
* Trans. Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Soc., vol. viii. pp. 631-666. 
