Suffolk County Flora - Suffolk Flora Committee

TRANSACTIONS SUFFOLK COUNTY FLORA Progress of work as at Ist October, 1969 THE Suffolk Flora Committee comprising Mr. F. J. Bingley, Miss P. M. Butler, Mr. F. W. Simpson, Dr. F. Perring, and Mr. P. J. O. Trist, are able to report good progress. In June, 1968, Mr. VV. E. Lewis was engaged for one day a week to assist Mr. Simpson in the transfer of records to the species cards. The Committee wishes to thank Mr. Lewis for the way in which he is undertaking an exacting task. Dr. Perring of Monks Wood Experimental Station has been of great assistance in supplying information from the B.S.B.I. records and the more recently collected information from the Breckland flora survey.

A great deal of information on the occurrence of both native and naturalised plant species in Suffolk is now held in the form of two main repositories. These are: (o) Copies of 'Composite' B.S.B.I. cards provided by the Nature Conservancy These cards, one for each 10-kilometre Square in the County (56 in all) record species collected in each Square during the period from 1950 onwards and incorporate the information available from B.S.B.I. 'parish' cards filled in by members of the Society as well as other information available to the Nature Conservancy. In addition, the records available from the more recent 'Breckland Survey' conducted by the Nature Conservancy are in process of being checked against the composite cards with the object of filling in gaps in the information already recorded. In the case of the first five of the Breckland squares this has resulted in the addition of some 400 species records not previously recorded in the various Squares concerned. Further data for the remaining five Breckland Squares will be similarly dealt with as it becomes available.

(6) The Society's Master Card Index of Species This now contains dated records of authenticated collections over a long period from the following sources: (1) Transactions of the Suffolk Naturalists' Society (Vols. 1 to 15 (Pt. 1)).

(2) 'Other Species' recorded on the B.S.B.I. Composite Cards (i.e. those species not included in the printed list).

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Suffolk Natural History, Vol. 15, Part 2

(3) The Victoria History of Suffolk 1911. Species listed therein which were not previously represented in the card index have been recorded.

(4) Extracted records from Kew Herbarium.

(5) A large number of records taken from parish collections

by Society members.

(6) N. Dixon Hewitt's annotated copy of Hind's Flora.

(7) Lady Rowley's annotated copy of Hind's Flora.

(8) D. J. Carpenter's records from old Ipswich Field Club Register.

(9) Mrs. J. Gray's Botanical Diaries.

(10) Atkins and Wilkinson's lists of Flora of the Ipswich area.

(11) Records of Suffolk plants contained in the 'Critical Species Supplement to the Atlas of the British Flora', 1968.

(Details supplied by the Nature Conservancy.)

(12) 'Other Species' recorded by the Breckland Survey of the Nature Conservancy from Breckland squares 52/76, 52/77, 52/86, 52/87, and 52/97.

(13) Miscellaneous collectors' lists and records obtained from a multitude of sources by Miss J. C. N. Willis and F. W. Simpson. There is still a considerable quantity of these to be dealt with.

There still remain gaps in the recording of a number of genera and species concerning which adequate information on occurrence and distribution is not at present available. These have now been listed by Mr. Simpson and the help of members of the Society is being sought in Alling the gaps from their own records.

The consolidation of the records contained in the B.S.B.I. Composite cards with those on the Master Card Index would be a major task if it were to be done for all species. It has already been done in the case of all 'Other Species' on the Composite cards (i.e. those species not included in the B.S.B.I. printed list). In the case of common species of known distribution in all squares, it is considered that consolidation would not be worthwhile. In the case of species of more limited distribution it is intended that records from the Composite cards be transferred to the alphabetical card index showing the 10-km. squares in which they have been recorded on the Composite cards. This is being done by means of a representation of the 10-km. grid for Suffolk, impressed by means of a rubber stamp on the reverse of the species card concerned. The squares in which the species has been recorded are then blocked in in colour to provide a visual aid to a quick appreciation of the distribution. A different colour can also be used to record former distributions where desired (e.g. distribution

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as shown in Hind's Flora) and thus provides a visual means of noting any major changes in distribution Over the last 80 years.

There would appear to be a good prospect that the actual drafting of the text of the new Flora can be commenced in the near future. For this purpose a new Card Index has been purchased and in the first place the descriptive text for each species will be written on cards which will then be arranged in the new index in systematic order to form the Script from which a draft of the whole text can be derived.

For

SUFFOLK C O U N T Y FLORA COMMITTEE.