Most honourd Sir,
[Fol 14.] I take ye boldnesse to salute you as a person of singular worth & learning and whom I very much respect & honour. I presented my service to you by my sonne some months past, and had thought before this time to have done it by him again, but the time of his returne to London being yet uncertaine, I would not deferre these at present unto you. I should be very glad to serve you by any observations of mine against yr. second edition of your Pinax[99] which I cannot sufficiently commende. I have observed and taken notice of many animals in these parts whereof 3 years agoe a learned gentleman of this country desired me to give him some account, which while I was doing ye gentleman my good friend died. I shall only at this time present and name some few unto you which I found not in your catalogue. A Trachurus [[see Note 61]] which yearly cometh before or in ye head of ye herrings called therefore an horse. Stella marina testacea [[see Note 87]] which I have often found upon the sea-shoare, an Astacus marinus pediculi marini facie [[see Note 81]] which is sometimes taken with the lobsters at Cromer in Norfolck. a pungitius marinus [[see Note 75]] wereof I have known many taken among weeds by fishers who drag by ye Sea-shoare on this coast. A Scarabæus capricornus odoratus[100] which I take to be mentioned by Moufetus fol. 150. I have taken some abroad one in my Seller which I now send he saith nucem moschatam et cinamomum vere Spirat to me it smelt like roses santalum & Ambegris. I have thrice met with Mergus maximus Farensis Clusij, [[see Note 11]] and have a draught thereof. they were taken about the time of herring fishing at yarmouth one was taken upon the shoare not able to fly away about ten yeares agoe I sent one to Dr. Scarborough. Twice I have met with a Skua Hoyeri [[see Note 10]] the draught whereof I also have. one was shot in a marsh which I gave unto a gentleman which [sic] I can sende you another was killd feeding upon a dead horse neere a marsh ground. Perusing your catalogue of Plants. upon Acorus verus,[101] I find these wordes found by Dr. Browne neere Lin. wherein probably there may be some mistake, for I cannot affirme nor I doubt any other yt. is found thereabout. Some 25 yeares ago I gave an account of this plant unto [this crossed out] Mr. Goodyeere:[102] & more lately to Dr. How[103] unto whome I sent some notes and a box full of the fresh Juli. This elegant plant groweth very plentifully and beareth its Julus yearly by the bankes of Norwich river [fol. 13 verso] chiefly about Claxton and Surlingham. & also between norwich & Hellsden bridge so that I have known Heigham Church in the suburbes of Norwich strowed all over with it, it hath been transplanted and set on the sides of Marish pondes in severall places of the country where it thrives and beareth ye Julus yearly.
[99] It is evident that Merrett was collecting a considerable amount of materials for an enlarged edition of his Pinax Rerum Naturalium Britannicarum, on behalf of which Browne seems, by this introductory letter, to have tendered his assistance, but the contemplated edition, probably for reasons which I have mentioned elsewhere, never appeared; happily, these rough drafts have been preserved, although it seems not unlikely that the letters themselves, should they ever be found, would differ from them in some respects.
[100] Scarabæus capricornus odoratus. The Musk Beetle, Aromia moschata, L.
[101] Acorus calamus, the Sweet Flag, is still found in plenty in various localities in the county, but it does not appear to develop its curious "julus" every year. It was very abundant at Heigham, a suburb of Norwich, on the site now occupied by the goods yard of the Midland and Great Northern Railway, and it was probably from this spot that the supply was obtained for the purpose of littering the floor of the old parish church. Mr. Vaux, in his "Church Folk-Lore," p. 264, says that up to the passing of the Municipal Reform Bill the Town Clerk of Norwich was accustomed to pay the sub-sacrist of the cathedral an amount of one guinea for strewing the floor with rushes on the Mayor's Day. The custom is said to have been adopted "as well for coolness as for pleasant smell." The pleasant cinnamon-like scent of the rush, on being trodden on, is said to have perfumed the whole building. The root was also used as a remedy in cases of ague, and formed the base of tooth and hair powders.
[102] Towards the end of the Introductory Letter to Johnson's (1636) Edition of Gerard's "Herball," he acknowledges the assistance he received from Mr. John Goodyer, of Maple-Durham, in Hampshire. Sir J. E. Smith ("Eng. Flora," iv., p. 34) speaks of him as "one of the most deserving of our early English Botanists." Robert Brown named a genus of plants (Goodyera) after Goodyer.
[103] William How, 1620-1656, was the author of "Phytologia Britannica," Lond., 1650, "the earliest work on botany restricted to the plants of this island" ("Dic. of Nat. Biog."). He practised medicine in London.
Sesamoides Salamanticum Magnum.[104] Why you omit Sesamoides Salamanticum parvum this groweth not far from Thetford and Brandon and plentifull in neighbour places where I found it and have it in my hortus hyemalis answering ye description in Gerard.
[104] Sesamoides is stated in Ree's Encyclopædia and in Eng. Fl. to be a synonym of Reseda, therefore Sesamoides magnum would appear to be R. luteola and S. parvum, R. lutea.
Urtica Romana[105] which groweth with button seede bags is not in yr. catalogue I have founde it to grow wild at [Golston crossed out] Golston by Yarmouth, & transplanted it to other places.[P]