Our Exotic Botany

EXOTIC

OUR BY

EXOTIC

EDWARD

W.

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BOTANY.

BOTANY.

PLATTEN,

F.R.H.S.

I REMEMBER that when the Hon. Vicary Gibbs was asked to write a little essay upon the English Oak, it ran into about a hundred printed pages, for there are dozens of distinct varieties of Oak ; and of herbaceous plants thousands, many of which will grow only upon heavy soil, others only upon light and yet some anywhere : among such a mass I shall content myself here with more general allusions.

Very fine herbaceous borders and splendid foreign trees are to be seen around Lord Ullswater's High House at Campsea Ash ; a wonderful Yew hedge, a grand old Beech hedge, with tall Oaks and Cedars are preserved by Mr. Bunnell Burton at Birkfield Lodge in Ipswich; the County can show many well-grown Wellingtonias, and the Walnut (Juglans) flourishes near many an old farm-house.

Yew trees (Taxus baccata, Linn.) were ordered to be planted in all churchyards by one of the Plantagenet Kings, and the species is so long-lived that some of these examples may be among the others that have sprung up there from their very poisonous seeds ; thence the custom spread to many private gardens, not so much on account of their beauty as for the sake of their usefulness in affording bows during the days when archery was England's main arm of war. That every Englishman had to carry a bow by Act of 1466, and that the Everard family of Linstead Magna near Haiesworth made a fortune by their manufacture at that time, has been indicated by one of our Members (Local Paper, 26th October, 1927).

The Horse Chestnut (Aesculus), although a very common tree, is not indigenous, having been first introduced in 1629 : now three or four varieties are grown in England.

Many of these exotic trees and especially the more ornamental ones were brought over soon after the discovery of America or, rather, as soon as our pioneers settled New England and California. Practically all foreign trees now growing upon our soil were either sent from these countries or raised from seed transmitted by settlers and travellers. Uvedale, the great botanist and explorer, brought over seeds of the Lebanon Cedar, huge trees from which yet exist around Needham Market, at Barking and Bosmere halls, and the bank in Needham, perhaps attaining their fĂźllest growth at the Rev. William Kirby's whilom rectory bordering on the Gipping marshes at Barham.

The majority of our most beautiful garden-plants are of foreign origin, some raised from imported seeds, but others

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here are due to accident. Either they arrived in such extraneous com as Wheat and Barley, or in that fruitful source of transmission, Bird-seed mixture.

The latter sorts were thrown out on waste land, grew, were noticed, cultivated and are still perpetuated; but many owe their native origin to botanists who were sent out, in some cases by the Linnean and Royal Horticultural Societies, to collect plants and seeds.

A large proportion of our most glorious Lilies (Liliaceee), like those we saw at Elveden Hall last August, were sent from India and Indo-China and Thibet.

But, whenever one discovers that some plant and maybe a most familiar plant is really a foreigner, one is frequently surprised to further find that, in a great many cases, it has been introduced into England as much as one or two, possibly three or even four, centuries ago. Y e t earlier, many of our native plants are survivals of the Ice Ages ; in fact, a few of the Ferns (Cryptogamecs) have withstood the entire glacial period, as has been demonstrated b y a comparison with their fossilised progenitors in the Coal Measures: even to the extent of synonymous species, though the recent forms are always smaller, owing to our colder climate.

Let me stress the fact that these were native tropical plants, flourishing when England was a torrid land.

On the contrary, in the Arboretum at Ipswich is to be seen a fine collection of Cacti, which are an introduction from still sub-torrid countries, of course ; and these well display what can be done here in the way of native cultivation.

Yuccas, Aloes and such Pomegranate trees as we saw at Birkfield in Ipswich last June, are in the same category; but, in a brief paper, it is impossible to give a list of trees or plants that are of foreign or even exotic origin.

Yet here I must mention one plant that everybody with a garden should grow : the Lilium regale, that was found by Wilson in the Himalayas of Indo-China.

This I have raised, grown and flowered from seed in no more than two years ; it is a most beautiful object, and well suits our climate, or vice versa.

Exotics is rather a paradoxical term to apply to garden plants, for really such will not grow in gardens and certainly will not need a Stove or hot-house ; for them frames or cool-houses are required.

Personally I am far more interested in the hardy Flowers and Ferns, though the latter or, more exactly, the different sorts of them, are few in Suffolk, which is b y no means a Fern county.

Also, I should like to see folk break away from the ubiquitous Geranium, Lobelia, and Marguerite-beds to grow more of our improved hybridised native Phanerogams.

OUTLOOK ON OUR COUNTRYSIDE.

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This is an inopportune place to add species to Suffolk plants ; yet, for fear it should be overlooked, I will end by instancing Mr.' T. Dipnall's record of the rare Vetch, Vicia hybrida, Linn.

Of this he discovered a single plant growing in an arable field at Shelley on 6th July, 1919.

It finds no place in Hind's local " Flora," and has been noticed in no more than two other British localities. It differs slightly from the very uncommon V. lutea, Linn., which occurs only along our coast, at Brandon and formerly in Whitton churchyard (where it was doubtless, along with the bee Dasypoda hirtipes in Shrubland Park, a survival of the days when the adj acent Gipping River was estuarine), in having the Standard hairy and in its more acute leaflets ; and in these points the Royal Horticultural Society corroborated Mr. Dipnall's identification.

THE NEED OF A NEW OUTLOOK ON OUR COUNTRYSIDE. B Y THE R E V . A . P . W A L L E R ,

M.A.

ALL lovers of the English landscape must welcome and rejoice at the many efforts, being made in various directions, to stem the rushing" torrent of vandalism ; or, perhaps I should say, of that commercial enterprise, which is sweeping our Countryside. In its heedless career, it threatens to carry away many delightful Beauty Spots and to destroy many picturesque ancient landmarks, links with the years that are gone, a priceless heritage of the past.

We have a duty to the generations that are yet to come, as well as to ourselves ; and the narrow view, of those who forget this in their grasp for gain, is much to be deplored. We have little use for the man who cuts trees down and plants none to take their place, saying " it would do htm no good ! " However, public opinion in this matter is steadily moving in the right direction. Also, there is another heritage and constant source of pleasure in our land : the wealth of its natural Fauna and Flora, which must not be overlooked. This, and the interest of it too, are endangered by the changing habits and new conditions in which we find ourselves living to-day. Tarred roads leading everywhere do not, in themselves, encourage or help either plant or insect life. Moreover, they convey modern transport and altered, though hardly improved, mentality into the most remote places. Even the wild honey-