HISTORY OF ESSEX BOTANY.
235
duas tresve spicas alternas quasi fissili, unam praecipue partem
spectante D. Buddie." The plant, being abundant enough, has
naturally been observed in the district by subsequent botanists
such as Edward Forster, the Rev. Thomas Benson, many years
vicar of Fambridge, Dr. Varenne, between 1867 and 1873, and
the present writer in 1890.
p. 70. " Lathyrus perennis siliqua hirsuta. At Hadly Castle two miles from
Lee in Essex." [Lathyrus hirsutus L.]
This is the first record of one of the most exclusively South
Essex species. Ray recorded it, having looked up its continental
synonymy, in the first edition of his Catalogus Plantarum Anglia
(1670), p. 190, as from Hockley, Raleigh, and Rochford Hundred,
and Dale reported it from Dengey Hundred ; nor is there any
reason to doubt that it was once more widely spread, though not
recorded from Nazing until 1836. In spite of cultivation it holds
its own in several localities, including the earliest recorded, where
Gibson collected it in 1834, Babington in 1835, Syme in 1860,
and Messrs. E. A. Fitch and W. Cole in 1889, and Latchingdon,
where it has been been known as abundant since 1850. There
is an excellent coloured plate of this species in Gibson's Flora.
p. 94. " Pisum aliud maritimum Britannicum, P. 1060. G. 1250. On
Essex shores." [Lathyrus maritimus Bigel.]
Though nowhere else recorded from Essex, this species may
have occurred in the county, since Ray mentions it from both
Hastings (Sussex) and Suffolk, and it is credited to Kent from
Camden's Britannia (1586) to Watson's Typographical Botany (1873).
Its chief interest, however, centres round its occurrence, as Ray
expresses it, "On the long baich of Stones running from Aldburgh
towards Orford in Suffolk," where it saved the inhabitants from
famine in 1555. This was first mentioned in the letters of Dr.
John Caius (1510-1573) to Conrad Gesner, and published by the
latter in De Aquatilibus, lib. 4, p. 256, and was afterwards narrated
by Stow in his Chronicle (1580).
p. 96. " Polygonum murinum. Near Lewis in Essex."
Whatever the locality may mean, this record is at least
equally obscure botanically. It is not likely to refer to Polygonum
maritimum L., which belongs to the south-west of England ; but
may be P. Raii Bab., which has been doubtfully recorded for