BOTANY sources, such as the examination of many private herbaria inaccessible to most, and compiling a readable and interesting book, and from it much of this account of Suffolk botanists has been derived. Dr. Hind died suddenly whilst addressing a meeting in 1894, and left a collection of Suffolk specimens, illustrating, in a large measure, his Flora ^ to the Ipswich Museum. Dr. Hind's Flora and, by the kindness of the museum authorities, the specimens illustrating it, have been of great value in preparing this paper upon Suffolk plants, but it has been found necessary to omit some of the species included in the Flora as the examples representing them in the museum are insufScient or incorrectly named. In compiling material for his work Dr. Hind was very considerably helped by the Rev. Churchill Babington, rector of Cockfield (whose name appears on the title-page of the Flora), who undoubtedly intended to become joint editor, but unfortunately his death in January 1889 prevented this. Many lists and actual specimens were examined by Dr. Hind, the chief contributors being the following : — Herbarium and lists of Sir C. J. F. Bunbury (1809-86) of Mildenhall and Barton, who found Scirpus rufus and Phleum phalarotdes ; Mrs. French of Woolpit, who botanized in the south-west of the county and discovered Vicia gracilis, CEnanthe fluviatiln^ Myoiotis sylvatica, and Polygonum maculatum ; Rev. G. R. Leathes of Shropham Hall, who found Malaxii paludosa and Allium oleraceum ; and lastly, Dr. Hind himself, who added to the county Fumarta demijiora, Filago gallica, Mentha gentilis, Luzula Forsteri, and Bromus madritensis. Botanists of the past have also to be reckoned with in compiling first evidences of the Flora of a county, and it would appear that the earliest mention of a Suffolk plant may be found in Miller's Gardener^i Dictionary, ed. 8 (1768), where it records the fact(!) that Lathyrus OT(7r/WOT«j sustained the people of Orford during a time of scarcity in 1555. The passage runs : — The English Sea Pea is found wild upon the shore in Sussex and several other counties in England. This was first taken notice of in the year 1555 between Orford and Aldborough, where it grew upon the heath where nothing, no, not grass, was ever seen to grow ; and the poor people being in distress by reason of the dearth that year, gathered large quantities of these peas and so preserved themselves and families. This is mentioned by Stowe in his Chronicle and Camden in his Britannia, but they were both mistaken in imagining that they were peas cast on shore by a shipwreck, seeing they grow in divers other parts of England and are undoubtedly a different species from the common Pea. The following botanists, of more than British fame in the olden days and now, should also be noted : — John Caius [alias Key) (15 10-73), who again reported Lathyrus maritimus ; John Gerard (1545-1612) of Herbal fame, who noticed Astragalus danicus and Elymus arenarius ; William How (1619-56), who mentioned in his Phytologia Britannica that Si lene Otites had been found by Mr. Sare ; the well-known John Ray (i 627-1 705), whose Synopsis added Frankenia laevis, Medicago minima, Trifolium glomeratum, Cicuta virosa, and Scleranthus perennis ; Adam Buddie, who died in 1 7 15 and for a time had his home at Henley in Suffolk, is credited with finding Medicago falcata, Lathyrus palustris, Eryngium campestre, Equisetum hyemale, znd Lycopodium clavatum ; James Sherard (1666-1737), vvho had a remarkable garden at Eltham, Kent, and who is responsible for Hellehorus foetidus, Senecio palustris, and Sonchus palustris; J. J. Dillenius (1687-1747), of German nationality, brought to England by W. Sherard (elder brother of above), who included in his edition of Ray's Synopsis, Verbascum pulverulentum, Thesium humifusum, and Urtica pilulifera ; T. Willisell, who flourished in Merrett, Ray, and Sherard's days, and collected plants for them all over the United Kingdom, and who found Artemisia campestris and Veronica triphyllos ; James Crowe, of Salix fame, who died in 1807 and who reported Daphne Mezereum and Fritillaria Meleagris ; Sir J. E. Smith (1759-1828), the founder of the Linnean Society, who mentioned in his Flora Britannica, Silene conica, Sedum albescens, Diotis candidissima, Chcnopodium botryodes, Panicum glabrum, Wein- gaertneria canescens and Poa bulbosa ; and W. Borrer (1781-1862), the Sussex botanist, who 'bund Limosella aquatica and Tolypella intricata. BOTANICAL DISTRICTS Tr. H. C. Watson, in Topographical Botany, has divided the county, for botanical pur- poses to East and West Suffolk (vice-counties 25 and 26), the boundary line being I deg. east Ic.jitude, but this is (as he himself says) 'not a good division because traceable on maps only, unseen on the ground.' In the Rev. W. M. Hind's Flora of Suffolk, the county was 51
