18 J. H. PRICE, I. TITTLEY & W. D. RICHARDSON 



only gradually exposed by the ebbing tide. Extensive Padina was found (1970) growing on the slopes 

 of the ledge where the rock was covered by compacted sand and silt. Plants were also present in 

 shallow rock pools, giving a total vertical amplitude of about midlittoral down to below MLWS. 



The earlier records from Brook[e] Bay (191 1, 1920, drift), Compton Bay (1929), and Colwell 

 Bay (1922), with the recent (1972) rediscovery by W. D. R. of a population in Colwell Bay (near 

 Totland, on the west coast) considerably extended the known Isle of Wight distribution. Off 

 Warden Point, a platform slopes gently towards the north-east; a second, smaller, platform clears 

 on the north-east side of Colwell Bay. Soft, almost muddy, sediments covered the surface of these 

 rocky platforms and both supported populations of Padina. 



Although the precise location is not always known and it does not have the earliest Padina 

 record, Shanklin is the area with the most consistent history of records for the Isle of Wight. 

 Horse Ledge [also known as Shanklin Ledge (Delf ) and (probably) Luccombe Ledge (Hambrough 

 in Venables)] is likely to have been the actual location in all cases. Elsewhere, the beach in front of 

 the town is of sand at the base of 45 m cliffs, and is divided by low wooden groynes to restrict 

 erosion and sand-transport. South of the pier, there is a scattered shingle of overlying white 

 pebbles. Neither of these circumstances is likely to encourage Padina growth, although it remains 

 possible that local and ephemeral substrate changes have eradicated populations other than on 

 Horse Ledge. The Ledge actually consists of a number of gently southward-sloping shelves of 

 rock trending seaward at right angles to the shore. Padina has been identifiably established there 

 for some considerable time, even omitting those unsupported records for which there is no more 

 precise location than 'Shanklin'. Hambrough's data appeared in 1860 and 1867; Grattann's in 

 1873-4 and 1896; and there are approximately contemporary supporting specimens in some 

 herbaria. Delf 's first records date from May 1922, and the discovery by Miss Hearn and others on 

 the Isle of Wight Natural History Society trip (3.vi.l925) '. . . among the rocks and pools . . .' can 

 only have referred to the Ledge. Subsequently, Padina was observed there in variable amounts 

 during 1925, 1926, September 1968, July 1969, and August 1970. The more recent observations 

 revealed Padina in small patches in scanty sediment on the wet rock surface, in shallow pools, and 

 on those parts of each shelf that remained in shallow depths below low tide level. If the imprecise 

 Shanklin records are admitted as referring to the same population, Padina seems likely to have 

 been present on Horse Ledge continuously for at least 100 years, and very probably much longer. 



Dorset 



Studland: 



23.iii.1890, K. Holmes (NMW). 



Swanage : 



Pulteney (1799); Pulteney [& Rackett] (1813); Pulteney in Greville (1830); M. E. Gray collec- 

 tion, viii.1859 (CGE), ix.1859 (CGE), vii.1861 (SLBI), vii.1861 (BM), 1861 (BM); Herb. Batters, 

 23.vi.1885, 1890 E. George, 24.ix.1891, ix.1897 E. George; 1.x. 1890, K. Holmes in Herb. Holmes; 

 Batters (1902); Herb. Robertson (GLAM). 



Chapman's Pool: 



ix.1894, Batters BMSC 9538; Batters (1902); Carter (1927), viii.1924 and summer 1925; 

 2.X.1960, J. F. M. Cannon, no. 2882, muddy rocks at HW; Burrows (1964), mid-littoral; 23.x. 1964, 

 0, E. M. Burrows; x.1965 (Herb. Russell); Holmes MSS [Victoria County History, Dorset, 

 unpublished]. 



Chapman's Pool, JY 957770: 

 25.ix.1972, W. D. R. 



Kimmeridge: 



x.1965 (Herb. Russell). 



