HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



109 



THE FLORA OF GUERNSEY. 

 By E. D. Marquand. 



THE Channel Islands present to the naturalist a 

 field of research scarcely to be equalled in 

 many respects in northern Europe. Their easy 

 accessibility, their convenient size, so to speak, being 

 neither mere rocky islets, nor extensive tracts too 

 large for single-handed work ; their mild climate, the 

 surpassing beauty of the scenery, and withal an ex- 

 ceedingly rich fauna and flora, all render this little 

 group peculiarly attractive and promising. Politi- 

 cally, the Channel Islands belong, of course, to 

 England ; but geographically, and to a very large 

 extent zoologically and botanically also, they cer- 

 tainly belong to France, from which mainland they 

 have become separated within a geologically recent 

 period. 



Of the entire group Guernsey may be considered 

 typical, from its medium size compared with the 

 other islands, whilst its remoteness from land, being 

 the most westerly of all (fifty-one miles south of Port- 

 land, and nearly thirty from the nearest point of the 

 French coast) marks it as the one to which we should 

 look for any peculiarity in the natural history of the 

 little archipelago, and as undoubtedly the best field 

 for studying the effect of insularity upon races of 

 animals and plants. 



The shape of Guernsey is as nearly as possible a 

 right-angled triangle, the longest side, nine or ten 

 miles in length, being presented to the north-west, 

 and broken by a succession of rocky or sandy bays. 

 The southern side (forming the base of the triangle) 

 extends about seven miles, and forms an elevated 

 plateau, rising rather more than three hundred feet 

 above the sea. The cliffs are precipitous and rocky, 

 intersected by deep valleys opening into little coves. 

 From about the middle of the island the land slopes 

 gradually, until at the northern and north-western 

 edges it has fallen nearly to the sea level. The coast 

 scenery is certainly not surpassed by the finest bits of 

 Devon or Cornwall. The area of Guernsey is about 

 twenty-five square miles. 



During the years 1837 and 1838 Professor C. 

 Cardale Babington spent some time in the Channel 

 Islands, and devoted his attention to the flowering 

 plants ; the result of his researches was the publica- 

 tion in i839ofhis " Primitirc Florae Sarnicce," a concise 

 and handy little volume which remains to this day 

 the best flora of the Channel Islands extant, in fact 

 the only one of any scientifie value at all. In the 

 fifty years that have intervened, however, great 

 changes have taken place in the larger islands ; much 

 waste land has been brought under cultivation, 

 marshes and bogs have been drained, a large number 

 of quarries have been opened up and extensively 

 worked, and in various ways the face of the country 

 has become greatly altered, with the consequence 

 that many wild plants have disappeared from their 



old habitats and some will never again be found 

 here. 



Professor Babington records for the whole of the 

 Channel Islands collectively eight hundred and forty- 

 eight flowering plants and ferns, of which five 

 hundred and fifty-three are noted as occurring in 

 Guernsey. But this is somewhat below the mark, 

 for during the present year (1889), working assiduously 

 at this branch of study, with especial regard to the 

 local distribution of the species, I have collected 

 between fifty and sixty unrecorded for this island, so 

 that the phanerogamic flora of Guernsey may be set 

 down at something over six hundred species. 

 Eighteen ferns are indigenous to the island. 



It seems to be an almost invariable rule in local 

 lists that whilst attention is always directed to the 

 rarities of the district, no notice whatever is taken of 

 the absence of any usually common species, which, 

 from some cause or other difficult to discover, are 

 not represented at all. Yet surely these deserve to 

 be carefully noted, because the absence of one 

 commonly distributed plant may go further towards 

 the unravelling of some knotty point connected with 

 the distribution of species, than the presence of half- 

 a-dozen rarities which possibly at some time have 

 been accidentally introduced. Here in Guernsey, for 

 example, the absence of several plants which are 

 common all over the south of England is quite 

 marked, and cannot fail to be noticed by any 

 moderately experienced and observant botanist. Let 

 me mention some of these : Erica tetralix : not a 

 stem of this common heath grows in the island, 

 though its two congeners, E. cincrca and Calluna 

 vulgaris, are abundant. Stellaria holostea : has never 

 been found in Guernsey. Mercurialis perennis : does 

 not occur here at all, although M. annua is one of 

 the most abundant weeds in fields and gardens. 

 Campanula rotimdifolia : unknown in the Channel 

 Islands, as it is also in West Cornwall. Solidago 

 virgaurea : does not occur in Guernsey. Anthyllis 

 vulneraria : I have failed to find any trace of this 

 plant, although Babington recorded it for Guernsey ; 

 perhaps it is lost. The genus Drosera is not repre- 

 sented at all. Caltha palustris : unknown in 

 Guernsey. Anemone nemorosa and Bnza media : 

 likewise unknown here. 



Now these plants, and others which might be 

 specified, are such as one would reasonably expect to 

 find here, and their absence is suggestive. It would 

 be interesting to trace out, as far as possible, the 

 probable causes which have prevented them from 

 spreading as far, for we can hardly suppose that they 

 once existed and have become extinct. Their case 

 is exceptional, too, for nearly every one of the very 

 common plants of Guernsey are very common also in 

 the south of England. 



It is manifestly impossible in a paper of this kind 

 to give anything like a full account of the flora of 

 even so small an island, but the following notes will 



