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.
[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.
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 fibulae marinae
pellucidae, [_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 & caniculae [_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_].
[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_].
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 raro occurrit[107] 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.
[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).
No. III.
[FOL. 40 _verso_.]
"_My third letter Sept xiii._"
Sr I receaued your courteous Letter and with all respects I now agayne
salute you.
The mola piscis is almost yearely taken on our coast [_see Note 58_]
this [last _crossed out_] year one was taken of about 2 hundred pounds
wayght diuers of them I haue opened & haue found many lyce sticking
close vnto thier gills whereof I send you some.
In your pinax I find onocrotalus or pellican [_see Note 25_] whether you
meane those at St. James or others brought ouer or such as haue been
taken or killed heere I knowe not. I haue one hangd up in my howse wch
was shott in a fenne ten miles of about 4 yeares ago and because it was
so rare some conjectured it might bee one of those which belonged vnto
the King & flewe away.
Ciconia raro hue aduolat. I haue seen two [_see Note 14_] one in a
watery marsh 8 miles of, another shott whose case is yet to bee seen.
[See Appendix D.]
Vitulus marinus. _In tractibus borealibus et Scotia_ [_see Note 53_]. no
raritie upon the coast of Norfolk at a lowe water I haue knowne them
taken asleep vnder the cliffes. diuers haue been brought vnto mee. our
seale is different from the Mediterranean seale. as hauing a rounder
head a shorter and stronger body.
Rana piscatrix I haue often known taken on our coast & some very large
[_see Note 59_].
Xiphias or gladius piscis or sword fish wee haue in our seas [_see Note
55_]. I haue the head of one which was taken not long ago entangled in
the Herring netts the sword aboue 2 foot in length.
Among the whales you may very well putt in the spermacetus [_see Note
51_] or that remarkably peculiar whale which so aboundeth in spermaceti.
about twelve years ago wee had one cast up on our shoare neer welles wch
I discribed in a peculiar chapter in the last edition of [_Fol. 41_] my
pseudodoxia epidemica. another was diuers yeares before cast up at
Hunstanton. both whose heads are yet to bee seen.
Ophidion or at least ophidion nostras [_see Note 69_] co[=m]only called
a sting fish hauing a small prickley finne running all along the back, &
another a good way on the belly, with little black spotts at the bottom
of the back finne if the fishermens hands bee touched or scrached with
this venemous fish they grow paynfull and swell the figure hereof I send
you in colours they are co[=m]on about cromer see Schoneveldeus de
Ophidiis.
Piscis octogonius or octangularis answering the discription of
Cataphractus Schoneveldei [_see Note 66_] only his is discribed with the
finnes spread & when it was fresh taken & a large one howeuer this may
bee nostras I send you one butt I haue seen much larger which fishermen
haue brought mee.
Physsalus [_see Note 89_]. I send one which hath been long opened &
shrunck & lost the colour when I tooke it upon the sea shoare it was
full & plump answering the figure & discription of Rondeletius. there is
also a like figure at the end of [Rondeletius _crossed out_] muffetus I
haue kept them aliue butt obserued no motion [butt _crossed out_] except
of contraction and dilation when it is fresh the prickles or brisles are
of a brisk green & Amethest colours--some call it a sea mous.
Our mullet is white & imberbis [_see Note 63_] butt wee haue also a
mullis barbatus ruber miniaceus or cinnaberinus somewhat rough & butt
drye meat. there is of them maior & minor resembling the figures in
Johnstonus tab xvii Rotbart.
Of the Acus marinus or needle fishes [_see Note 64_] I haue obserued 3
sorts. The Acus Aristotelis called heere an Addercock Acus maior or
Garfish with a green verdigris backbone the other saurus Acui similis
Acus sauroides or sauriformis as it may be called much answering to the
discription of saurus Rondeletij in the hinder part much resembling a
makerell opening one I found not the backbone green Johnstonus writes
nearest to it in his Acus minor. I send you the head of one dryed butt
the bill is broken I haue the whole draught in picture. this kind is
more rare then the other wch are co[=m]on & is a rounder fish.
[_Fol. 41 verso._] Vermes marini are large wormes [_see Note 91_] found
2 foot deep in the sea sands & are digged out at an ebbe for bayt.
The Avicula Maialis or may chitt [_see Note 29_] is a litle dark gray
bird somewhat bigger then a stint which co[=m]eth in may or the later
end of April & stayeth about a moneth. A marsh bird the legges & feet
black without an heele the bill black about 3 quarters of an inch long
they grow very fatt & are accounted a dayntie dish.
A Dorhawke a bird not full so bigge as a pigeon [_see Note 42_] somewhat
of a woodcock colour & paned somewhat like an hawke with a bill not much
bigger then that of a Titmouse [& very wide throat _added above_] known
by the name of a dorhawke or prayer upon beetles, as though it were some
kind of accipiter muscarius. in brief this accipiter cantharophagus or
dorhawke [_a word smeared out_] is _Avis Rostratula gutturosa_, _quasi
coaxans_, _scarabaeis vescens_, _sub vesperam volans_, _ouum
speciosissim[=u]_ [_word smeared_] _excludens_. I haue had many of them &
am sorry I have not one to send you I spoake to a friend to shoote one
butt I doubt they are gone ouer.
of the vpupa [_see Note 35_] diuers have been brought mee & some I haue
obserued in these parts as I trauuyled about.
The Aquila Gesneri I sent [aliue _added above_] to Dr. Scarburg [_see
Note 3_] who told mee it was kept in the colledge it was brought mee out
of Ireland. I kept it 2 yeares in my howse I am sorry I haue only one
fether of it to send you.
A shooing horn or Barker from the figure of the bill & barking note
[_see Note 38_] a long made bird of white & blakish colour finne footed,
a marsh bird & not rare some times of the yeare in marshland. it may
upon vewe bee called Recuruirostra nostras or Auoseta much resembling
the Auosettae [species _crossed out_] species in Johnstonus tab (54). I
send you the head in picture
[A _smeared out_] stone curliews I haue kept in large cages [_see Note
37_] the[y] haue a prettie shrill note, not hard to bee got in some
parts of norfolk.
[_Fol. 42_] Haue you Scorpius marinus Schoneueldei [_see Note 68_]
haue you putt in the musca Tulipar[=u] muscata[108]
[108] It seems impossible to identify this insect; _Merodon
narcissi_ has been suggested, but Mr. Verrall, whom I consulted
says, "certainly not _Merodon_, which probably was not known in
Britain until about 1870," and suggests the small fly _Nemopoda_.
Mr. Bloomfield writes that the only fly of which he has seen any
mention as having a musky or "excellent fragrant odour" is _Sepsis
cynipsea_, which Kirby and Spence state on the authority of De
Geer, "emits a fragrant odour of beaum" (balm); this species is
very nearly allied to Nemopoda. Several Bees, for instance the
Genus _Prosopis_, emit a strong scent of balm, and it is possible
that Browne may have used the term "fly" in what is even now a
popular sense, and that really some species of Bee may have called
forth his remarks. It will be noticed that at p. 74 he speaks of it
as a "small beelike flye."
That bird which I sayd much answered the discription of Garrulus
Argentoratensis [_see Note 49_] I send you it was shott on a tree x
miles of 4 yeares ago. it may well bee called the Parret Jay or Garrulus
psittacoides speciosus. the colours are much faded. if you haue it
before I should bee content to haue it agayne otherwise you may please
to keep it.
Garrulus Bohemicus[109] probably you haue a prettie handsome bird with
the fine cinnaberin tipps of the wings some wch I haue seen heere haue
the tayle tipt with yellowe wch is not in the discription.
[109] Mr. Stevenson, whom very little relating to Norfolk
Ornithology escaped, was well acquainted with Sir Thomas Browne's
works, yet has in his "Birds of Norfolk" unaccountably overlooked
this passage, and remarks that Browne does not appear to have
noticed this species; he however not only refers to it as above,
but evidently describes it from his personal observation. It is a
very uncertain winter visitor to this county, but on rare occasions
makes its appearance in considerable flocks. A remarkable instance
of this occurred in the winter of 1866-7, when Mr. Stevenson, as
the result of the examination of a very large series, contributed
an exhaustive paper on the plumage of this handsome bird to the
"Transactions of the Norf. and Nor. Nat. Soc.," iii., pp. 326-344.
I haue also sent you urtica mas [_see Note 105_] which I lately gathered
at Golston by yarmouth where I found it to growe also 25 yeares ago. of
the stella marina Testacea which I sent you [_see Note 87_] I do not
find the figure in any booke.
I send you a few flies[110] which some unhealthful yeares about the
first part of september I haue obserued so numerous upon plashes in the
marshes & marish diches that in a small compasse it were no hard matter
to gather a peck of them I brought some what my box would hold butt the
greatest part are scatterd lost or giuen away for memorie sake I writ on
my box muscae palustres Autumnales [See Appendix D.]
[110] Mr. Verrall assures me that even in the present day it is
quite impossible to recognise the species of Diptera described by
persons unacquainted with the particular group, and that Browne's
remarks would apply to hundreds of species. It is possible that an
_Ephydra_ may be meant. This genus of small flies, says Mr.
Verrall, abounds in such places as Browne describes, but it is
likely that other species were with them.
worthy Sr I shall be euer redie to serue you who am Sr your humble
Seruant
THO BROWNE.
_Norwich, Sep 16. 1668._
No. IV.
"_The fourth Letter to Dr. Merrett Decemb xxix._" [1668]
[_Fol. 42 verso._] Sr I am very joyfull that you haue recouered your
health whereof I heartily wish the continuation for your own and the
publick good. And I humbly thank you for the courteous present of your
booke.[111] with much delight and satisfaction I had read the same not
once in English I must needs acknowledge your co[=m]ent more acceptable
to me then the text which I am sure is an hard obscure peice without it.
though I haue not been a stranger unto the vitriarie Art both in England
and abroad.
[111] This evidently refers to the gift of a copy of Merrett's
Latin translation of Antonio Neri's _L'Arte Vetraria_ (Firenze,
1612, 4to), published under the title of "The Art of Glass,
translated into English with some observations on the Author," &c.,
in 1662, and a Latin edition in 1668.
I perceiue you haue proceeded farre in your Pinax. These few at present
I am bold to propose & hint unto you intending God willing to salute you
agayne.
A paragraph might probably be annexed unto Quercus. Though wee haue not
all the exotick oakes, nor their excretions yet these and probably more
supercrescences productions or excretions may bee obserued in England.
Viscum--polypodium--Juli pilulae--
Gemmae foraminatae [formicatae?] folior[=u]--
excrement[=u] fungosum verticibus scatens--
Excrementum Lanatum--
Capitula squamosa jacaeae aemula.
Nodi--melleus Liquor--Tubera radicum
vermibus scatentia--Muscus--Lichen--
Fungus--varae quercinae.[112]
[112] The Rev. E. N. Bloomfield has most kindly assisted me in
attempting to identify the Parasitic products of the Oak mentioned
above:
_Viscum_, is doubtless the Mistletoe.
_Polypodium_, the Common Polypody Fern.
_Juli pilulae_: "little balls on the flower catkins." The Currant
Gall, _Neurosterus baccarum_, which is the spring form of _N.
lenticularis_; Oliv.
_Gemmae foraminatae [formicatae?] foliorum_: "pimple-like buds on the
leaves." Leaf-galls, such as the Silky Button, _N. numismatis_,
Oliv., and the common Spangle, _N. lenticularus_, Oliv.
_Excrementum fungosum verticibus scatens_: "a spongy secretion
bursting out from the ends of the shoots." The Oak Apple, _Biorhiza
terminalis_, Fab.
_Excrementum lanatum_: the Woolly Gall, _Andricus ramuli_, L., a
somewhat rare Gall, resembling a ball of cotton-wool.
_Capitula squamosa jacaeae aemula_: "little scaley (or imbricated)
heads resembling the heads of Jacea" (Black Knapweed). The
Artichoke Gall. _Andricus fecundatrix_; Htg.
_Nodi_: probably swellings of any sort, whether caused by insects
or not.
_Melleus liquor_: Honey-dew, a secretion of Aphides.
_Tubera radicum vermibus scatentia_: "swollen tubers on the roots
containing grubs;" without doubt the Root-Gall, _Andricus radicis_,
Fab. Polythalamous Galls, often very large at the roots or on the
trunk near the ground.
Mosses, Lichens, and Fungi, all "genuine products of the Oak," need
no comment, but Mr. Bloomfield remarks, "How wonderfully observant
Sir Thomas Browne must have been thus to distinguish the various
galls, &c., and to point them out so distinctly."
Browne's contemporary, Dean Wren, seems sadly to have misunderstood
the fructification of the Oak. In a note on Browne's remarks on the
"Miseltoe" (_Pseudodoxia_, book ii., chap. vi.), he says,
"Arboreous excrescences of the Oak are soe many as may raise the
greatest wonder. Besides the gall, which is his proper fruite, hee
shootes out oakerns, i.e., _ut nunc vocamus_ (acornes), and oakes
apples, and polypodye, and moss; five several sorts of
excrescences." See also letter to his son, Dr. Edward Browne, in
which Sir Thomas Browne says that "wee haue little or none of
_viscus quercinus_, or miselto of the oake, in this country; butt I
beleeve they have in the woods and parks of Oxfordshyre."--Wilkin,
i, p. 279.
[_Fol. 43._] Capillaris marina sparsa fucus capillaris marinus sparsus
sive capillitius marinus or sea periwigge.[113] strings of this are
often found on the sea shoare. but this is the full figure I haue seen 3
times as large.
[113] In Sir Thomas Browne's time the Hydrozoa were not
distinguished from the Corallines, and both were regarded as
vegetable growths. It is almost impossible to determine from his
vague descriptions even to which section those mentioned belong,
but although our exposed coast-line is not favourable to such
growths, there are a few common species of Hydroid Zoophytes which
abound here, and to these, fortunately, Browne's specimens appear
to belong. What he calls the "Sea-perriwig" is doubtless
_Sertularia operculata_, Lin., sometimes known as "Sea-hair," a
very common and widely dispersed species.
I send you also [_several words smeared out_] a little elegant sea
plant[114] which I pulled from a greater bush thereof which I haue
resembling the back bone of a fish. Fucus marinus vertebratus pisciculi
spinum referens Icthyorachius or what you thinck fitt.
[114] The little "Fucus," which he compares to the backbone of a
fish, is probably _Halecium halecinum_, Lin., the "Herring-bone
Coral" of Ellis, one of the most common Zoophytes on our coast. The
"Abies," of which he suggests at p. 75 that this may be a
"difference," is most likely _Sertularia abietina_, Lin., which
this species resembles, but is less regularly pinnate; this may
have led him to suppose that the "sprouts, wings, or leaves" may
have fallen off. The _Fucus marinus_ is most likely _Fucus
serratus_.
And though perhaps it bee not worth the taking notice of formicae
arenariae marinae or at least muscus formicarius marinus[115] yet I
obserue great numbers by the seashoare and at yarmouth an open sandy
coast, in a sunny day many large and winged ones may bee obserued upon &
rising out of the [shoare _crossed out_] wet sands when the tide falls
away.
[115] Swarms of Ants and Flies are no uncommon sight along the
seashore at certain seasons of the year, and under the conditions
which Browne describes. The Pagets ("Nat. Hist. of Great Yarmouth")
mention that the fly, _Actora aestuum_, is common on the beach at
high-water mark; but Mr. Verrall writes me that there are many
others likely to be thus met with, such as _Orygma luctuosa_ and
_Limosina zosterae_, widely divergent species. In his "Journal of a
Tour" into Derbyshire, Dr. Edward Browne, in crossing the sands of
the Wash, mentions his satisfaction at the absence of the swarms of
flies "with which all the fenne countrys are extremely pestered."
_See also Note 110 supra._
Notonecton an insect that swimmeth on its back [_see Note 98_] &
mentioned by Muffettus may be obserued with us.
I send you a white Reed chock[116] by name some kind of Junco or litle
sort thereof I haue had another very white when fresh.