A HISTORY OF NORFOLK I.— THE EASTERN DIVISION This division, designated by an ' £ ' in the tables of species, is bounded on the east by the sea and on the west by a h'ne drawn perpendicularly on the map passing through Norwich and terminating northward at Cromer and southward at the river Waveney, which forms the boundary of the county just to the east of Harleston. Travelling northward along the coast from Yarmouth there is a flat sandy and shingly beach without cliffs as far as Happisburgh ; from thence to Cromer there are cliff? varying in height, their highest point at Trimingham being about 250 feet above the sea. These cliffs are composed of sand, gravel and clay with chalk at Trimingham. Where the cliffs begin the flora changes, the sand-loving grasses still hold their own to some extent on the shore, but on the cliffs themselves and on their summits grow sometimes in considerable quantities Orohanche coerulea (its host being Achillea Millefolium), Ophrys apifera and Equiietum maximum. The seaward surface of these cliffs is continually changing as they slip into the sea from the action of the landsprings which undermine the lower portion of their face, and there are thus formed many little undercliffs which, existing for a few years, are the homes of many interesting plants, until in their turn both soil and plants fall on the beach and are washed away. From the harbour's mouth at Yarmouth for about five miles, with the exception of the front of the town, extend the South and North Denes, which have been, and are still to some extent, though sadly injured in a botanical view by use as camping grounds, golf links, etc., the localities of a peculiar vegetation of their own, consisting principally of minute Cerastia, many Trifilia, Lotus, Galium, Ononis and dwarf grasses ; among the latter IVeingtertneria canescens and Poa bulbosa, and in the deep sand near the beach grow Ammophila arundinacea and A. baltica, Elymus arenarius with Tritica, Festuca arenaria and Carex arenaria, which with their long creeping roots bind the loose sand together and enable it to resist the sea. At Caistor Thalictrum dunense still grows, and at Hemsby Mr. Wigg is said to have found Crithmum maritimum more than a century ago, but it has not been heard of since. Atriplex pedunculata unquestionably grew within the county limits, as there are specimens from Runham in Sir James Paget's Herbarium in the Norwich Castle Museum, but careful search in the last few years has failed to rediscover it. Within the coast-line, approaching very near the sea at its northernmost corner, lies what is known as the ' Norfolk Broad ' country, occupying an irregularly-shaped patch of about eight miles by twelve from Filby Broad in the south to Horsey Mere in the north, and from the latter point east to Wroxham Broad in the west. These shallow freshwater lakes com- municate directly or indirectly with the river Bure, and were estimated by Mr. H. B. Woodward in 1881 to cover about 1,500 acres, and were considered by Mr. Gunn to be ' growing up ' at the rate of one foot in twenty years. This district has two species of plants not found elsewhere in Great Britain, Naias marina, discovered in 1883 by Mr. Arthur Bennett, and Carex trinervis, first found in 1884 by the late Hampden G. Glasspoole ; it contains also many other rare plants, such as Senecio palustris, Liparis Loeselii and Carex paradoxa. The water of the broads is crowded with Batrachian Ranunculi, white and yellow water-lilies, Stratiotes abides, Potamogetons and Utriculariae ; and their margins are thick with Cladium Jamaicense, Scirpi and reeds, and hosts of Lythrum Salicaria, Lysimachia vulgaris and the commoner kinds of orchids, and on the banks of some of these broads there is plenty of Pyrola rotundifolia. The latest records of Sonchus palustris in this division are those of of the late Rev. Kirby Trimmer in 1873 to 1876, and it is not known to have been found since. The northern portion of this division between the coast-line, the Broad country, and the western boundary line is mostly arable, very few small patches of the original heathy, sandy or boggy soil being left as common or waste. Wherever there is a bog however small there abound Drosera rotundifolia, D. intermedia and D. anglica, and an apparent hybrid between D. rotundifolia and D. anglica, resembling the D. obovata of the west coast of Scotland, has occurred. Pinguicula vulgaris is very common, but the rarest plant of these bogs is Limosella aquatica. On the drier parts of the heaths there are three gentians, Gentiana Amarella, G. campestris and G. Pneumonanthe. G. baltica has been identified by Murbeck from one locality ; and on dry banks, or by the roadsides, there are three mulleins, Ferbascum Thapsus, V. pulverulentum and V. nigrum, and hybrids between the two latter are not unfrequent. The city of Norwich, which is included in this division, has, or rather had, on its old city walls several rare plants, Holosteum umbellatum, Teucrium Chamadrys and Muscari racemosum, but as the walls themselves disappear so must the plants, which can hardly be considered 46
