No. II Fol. 39.]
“My second letter to Dr Meret Aug xiiii 1668.”
Honord Sr I receiued your courteous letter & am sorry some diuersions have so long delayed this my second vnto you. You are very exact in the account of the fungi. I have met with two,106 which I have not found in any Author, of which I have sent you a rude draught inclosed. The first an elegant fungus Ligneus found in an hollow sallowe I haue one of them by mee butt without a very good opportunitie dare not send it fearing it should bee broken vnto some it seemed to resemble some noble or princely ornament of the head & so might bee called fungus Regius vnto others a turret, top of a cupola or Lanterne of a building & so might bee named fungus pterygoides, pinnacularis or Lanterniformis you may name it as you please. The second fungus Ligneus teres Antliarum or fungus ligularis longissimus consisting [of crossed out] or made of many wooddy strings about the bignesse of round poynts or Laces some about half a yard long shooting in a bushie forme from the trees wch serue vnderground for pumpes. I have obserued diuers especially in norwich where wells are sunck deep for pumpes.
The fungus phalloides found not farre from norwich large & very fetid answering the description of Hadrianus junius I have a part of one dryed by mee.
Fungus rotundus maior I haue found about x inches in Diameter & half [sic, have?] half a one dryed by mee.
Another small paper containes the rude draughts of fibulæ marinæ pellucidæ, [see Note 90] or sea buttons a kind of squalder & referring to vrtica marina which I haue obserued in great numbers by yarmouth after a flood & easterly winds. They resemble pure crystall buttons chamfered or welted on the sides with 2 small holes at the ends. They cannot bee sent for the included water or thinne gelly soon runneth from them.
Vrtica marina minor jonstoni [see Note 90] I haue often found on this coast. [Continued on fol. 39 verso.]
Physsalus [see Note 89] I haue often found also I haue one dryed but it hath lost its shape & colour.
Galei & caniculæ [see Note 56] are often found I haue a fish hanged up in my yard of 2 yards long taken among the Herrings at yarmouth which is the Canis carcharias alius Johnstoni. Tab. vi fig. 6.
Lupus marinus you mention upon an handsome experiment butt I find it not in the catalogue. This Lupus marinus or Lycostomus is often taken by our seamen wch fish for cods I haue had diuers brought mee. they hang up in many howses in Yarmouth.
Trutta marina is taken with us—a better dish than the Riuer trowt butt of the same bignesse.
Loligo sepia a cuttle page 191 of your Pinax [see Note 80] I conceiue worthy Sr it were best to putt them in 2 distinct lines as distinct species of the Molles. The loligo, calamare or sleue I haue often found cast up on the seashoare & some haue been brought mee by fishermen of aboue [20 crossed out] twentie pound wayet.
Among the fishes of our Norwich riuer wee scarce reckon salmons [see Note 92] yet some are yearly taken. butt all taken in the Riuer or coast haue the end of the lower jaw very much hooked which enters a great way into the upper jaw like a socket. you may find the same though not in figure if you please to read Johnstonus fol 101 I am not satisfied with the conceit of some authors there that is [it?] is a difference of male and female for all ours are thus formed. The fish is thicker than [oth crossed out] ordinarie salmons and very much & more largely spotted whether not rather Beccard gallorum or Anchorago Scaligeri I haue bothe draught & head of one dryed either of wch you may command.
Scyllarus or cancellus in turbine tis probable you have [see Note 84]. haue you cancellus in nerite a small testaceous found upon this coast.
[Fol. 40.] Haue you mullus ruber asper [see Note 63].
Haue [you] piscis octangularis Bivormii?Q [see Note 66, also pp. 65 and 87 infra].
vermes marini larger than earthwormes [see Note 91] digged out of the sea sand about 2 foot deepe at an ebbe water for bayte they are discouered by a little hole or sinking of the sand at the top aboue them.
Haue you that handsome colourd [bird crossed out] jay [see Note 49] answering the description of Garrulus Argentoratensis & may be called the parret jay I haue one that was killed upon a tree about 5 yeares ago.
Haue you a may chitt a small dark gray bird [see Note 29] about the bignesse of a stint wch cometh about may & stayeth butt a moneth. a bird of exceeding fattnesse and accounted a daintie dish. they are plentifully taken in marshland and about wisbich.
Haue you a [caprimulgus or written above] dorhawke a bird as bigge as [a] pigeon [see Note 42] with a wide throat bill as little as a titmous & white fethers in the tayle & paned like an hawke.
Succinum rarò occurrit107 pag 291 of yours. [Should be p. 219] not so rarely on the coast of norfolk. tis usually found in small peeces [butt crossed out] sometimes in peeces of a pound wayght. I haue one by mee fat & fayre of x ounces wayght—jet more often found I haue an handsom peece of xii ounces in wayet.
Notes
106 Dr. Plowright informs me that “it is impossible to say with certainty what the first named Fungus is; the description suggests some form of Polyporus perhaps, P. varius, which is a ligneous species and occurs frequently on willows in Norfolk. The second is the abortive form of Polyporus squamosus, which is well figured by many of the older botanists, for instance under the name of Boletus rangiferinus, by Bolton, t. 138, and Boletus squamosus, var. rangiferinus, by Hooker, ‘Flora Londinensis,’ new series. In many cases no pileus at all is formed and it used then to be referred to Clavaria.” The Phalloides is Phallus impudicus, L., a very common species in this county and even occurring in some of the city gardens where its exceedingly offensive odour renders it very undesirable. Fungus rotundus is the well-known Lycoperdon giganteum, Fr., which sometimes reaches a very large size.
Q Thus in the MS., but Browne seems to have intended to write Bicornis Vormii, and accidentally to have run the two words together [see p. 41 supra].
107 Amber, writes Mr. Clement Reid, in a paper contributed by him to the “Trans. Norf. and Nor. Nat. Soc.” (iii., p. 601), “is found on the Norfolk coast, usually mixed with the seaweed thrown up by the Spring gales,” but is very rarely found in place; as much as three or four pounds are annually gathered near Cromer. The quality, Mr. Rein says, is very good, but the dark transparent lumps are most generally found. In a subsequent paper (op. cit., iv., p. 248) he enumerates seven species of insects which have been found enclosed, and in a third communication mentions an eighth. Mr. A. S. Ford, as the result of an examination of a collection of East-coast Amber made at Yarmouth (op. cit., v., p. 92), adds one species of Hymenoptera, three of Coleoptera, two of Orthoptera, with some Araneida, and remains of vegetable substances which had not been identified.
The Jet found on the Norfolk coast differs considerably from the Whitby Jet, and Mr. Reid, “Geology of the Country Round Cromer” (p. 133), believes that in all probability it was originally derived from Lower Tertiary beds under the North Sea, a few miles from the present coast. Mr. Savin estimates the average annual find of Jet near Cromer at from ten to twenty pounds.
The doctor does not display his usual acumen when he rejects the “ancient” opinion as to the vegetable origin of Amber, see Pseudodoxia, book ii., chap. iv.; also letter from Earl of Yarmouth to T. B. (Wilkin Edit. i., p. 411).
← Back to Notes and Letters on the Natural History of Norfolk