102
Suffolk Natural History, Vol. 42
Silene catholica I am indebted to Mr Bill Thompson for passing on a copy of the original publication of George Wolsey’s record of this species from The Phytologist 2: 220-221 (1857): ‘This plant was found in the village of Great Livermere, near Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. The collector wishing to procure this must enter the park from the village above names, by the “park gates,” or obtain permission from the gate-keeper to pass through the lodge on the left-hand, and then proceed a short distance southward, amongst the trees separating the park from the grounds of the parsonage house, where its habitat may be found with no difficulty. Just within the iron fencing forming the boundary of the “old garden,” in the park, may be found Astragalus Hypoglottis [= Purple Milkvetch, A. danicus], near the gate opposite the bridge that divides the large sheet of water. It is but a short walk from the station for the Silene. In an old pasture in the same village , at the end of Ixworth lane, there is a plant having very much the appearance of Gymnadenia conopsea in its botanical characters, but it has a fetid odour, and is in flower a fortnight earlier than the deliciously sweet true species: it may prove worth investigating.’ I have repeated this piece in full as Mr Thompson had followed up a similar 19th century record in Worcestershire and found that the Silene was still there. It would be interesting to know if it had also managed to survive at Livermere. Hind’s Flora also mentions that Silene catholica was well established in a shrubbery at Southgate Green, Bury St Edmunds. The Fragrant orchid Wolsey refers to with a ‘fetid odour’ sounds like the true chalk grassland species rather than the Marsh Fragrant (now G. densiflora) still found in a few Suffolk fens. There is a specimen of Gymnadenia collected at ‘Barton’ in Lady Blake’s Herbarium c. 1840–1850. Martin Sanford SBRC, Ipswich Museum, High Street, Ipswich, Suffolk IP1 3QH
Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 42 (2006)