274
NOTES ON SOME PLANTS PECULIAR TO
ESSEX, AND OF SOME PLANTS OF SAFFRON
WALDEN AND NEIGHBOURHOOD.
By JOSEPH CLARKE, F.S.A.
[Read June 22nd, 1889.]
My botanical days are over, but I have been asked by Mr. Cole to
supply a few notes on the above for the present meeting. And first
I may say that Essex may take to itself five plants almost exclusively
its own; in 1862 (the date of the publication of Gibson's "Flora")
they were not known in any other county. They are :—
Lathyrus hirsutus, L. (figured in Gibson's "Flora"). This
pretty little vetch is found in several places, but is confined almost
exclusively to the southern parts of the county.
L. tuberosus, L. A very showy plant that grows about Fyfield,
and has been found at Bowers Gifford; there is no certainty of its
having been found out of Essex.1 Mr. H. W. King, the Secretary
to the Essex Archaeological Society, has made known a new locality,
or rather an old one, in Canvey Island. He writes:—"A large arable
marsh in Canvey Island where it grows in great plenty. We believe
it was planted there by the Dutch, who came over to embank the
Island in 1622, and many of them continued there about a hundred
years. My late wife's grandfather was 94, and he died some 50 years
ago, so that we could trace the pea there for 150 years by family
tradition, as the family owned land there for more than a century—I
should think much more—and the field was always called 'Gay Marsh.'
I could not, however, raise a single plant with the tuber attached. The
ground was so hard and stiff, almost like chocolate, but very fertile,
and grows fine corn. It has never been eradicated, it is so deep in
the ground. The tubers, which here are not much bigger than a
horse-bean, are said to be edible; the pigs, after harvest, will root
the ground in search of them. It was first brought from Holland to
England temp. Elizabeth. It grows but in that arable marsh, and
nowhere else in the whole island."
Bupleurum falcatum, L. Found at Ongar and adjacent
parishes; not known in any other part of Essex or England.
Galium vaillantii, Caud. (figured in the "Flora"). Discovered
in 1844j then peculiar to the vicinity of Saffron Walden.2
1 L. tuberosus has been recorded from Eastbourne, Sussex; see E. N. vol. ii, p. 170 and
p. 272.—Ed.
2 In a letter Mr. Clarks says, "This has been a puzzle for years, and now I send some of the