NOTES ON SOME RARER NORFOLK PLANTS. 
627 
position in the Wissey valley. In all these cases the plant 
would be almost on the shores of the old fen sea, and at 
Mildenhall, Eriswell and Thompson there are survivals of the 
vegetation of the littoral. At Wells it is, of course, still near 
the sea. The field at Thompson on which we found Gnaphalium 
was fallow, but in 1910 four acres had been planted for game 
with mustard and buckwheat. 
We endeavoured to ascertain whether the mustard or buck- 
wheat seed was obtained from France, where Gnaphalium 
luteo-album is comparatively common. Our enquiries showed 
that the mustard-seed probably came from the Fenland, and the 
buckwheat from Lincolnshire, so that the possibility of the 
Gnaphalium having sprung up from seed planted with the crop 
is remote. Mr. C. W. Marsters, of King’s Lynn, states that 
both French mustard and buckwheat are imported into East 
Anglia for feeding and crushing purposes, but he has never 
heard of either being sown for seed in East Anglia. Messrs. 
Hurst and Son, Houndsditch, London, stated that mustard is 
not imported from France to the Metropolis, although a fair 
quantity of buckwheat is imported from Brittany, but this is 
only used for feeding purposes. Seed furnished by them, how- 
ever, produced flourishing plants in Norwich in 1912. 
The Gnaphalium was growing on part of the field which had 
been cultivated the previous year, and was found on an area of 
150 by 133 yards. From many counts made we found that 
the average number of plants on square yards where the growth 
was thickest was 24, with a maximum of 43, but this did not 
apply to the whole area on which they occurred. The plants 
ranged in height from four to eighteen inches, and a few of 
them were seeding. The field was thinly covered with the 
small herbage common to fallow brecks. Holcus lanatus and 
Agrostis vulgaris were the principal grasses, and with these 
were associated Papaver Rhceas, Reseda lutea, Lychnis alba, 
Arenaria tenuifolia, A. serpyllifolia, Alchemilla arvensis, 
Caucalis nodosa, Sherardia arvensis, Erigeron canadense, 
Filago germanica, F. minima, Anthemis arvensis, Senecio 
vulgaris, S. Jacobcea, Carduus nutans, Cnicus arvensis, 
