THE DISTRIBUTION OF PADINA PAVONICA 29 



Herb. HAMU, no other data; H. Boyden in Herb. W. R. Sherrin, no date, no other location 

 (SLBI) - (Boyden's collections in SLBI are otherwise almost entirely from Cornwall, Scilly Isles.) 



It is not clear why there are few records from any era, and no modern ones at all, for Cornwall ; 

 the general environment in certain Cornish localities does not differ radically from that of Devon 

 areas where Padina is known. Other species present and available substrata closely resemble those 

 in Devon Padina areas in, for example, Kennack Sands; between St George's Island and West 

 Looe; near the estuaries of the Fal and Helford Rivers; and in shallow protected stretches in some 

 of the small harbours in the south. 



That the only precisely located Padina records derive from some of the at first sight more 

 improbable Cornish locations is equally strange. Very strong wave-action appears likely to 

 preclude growth of Padina on Eddystone. Drift, for reasons given elsewhere, seems only remotely 

 possible. Labelling of the specimens seems unequivocal, but the phraseology '. . . procured from 

 Eddystone Lighthouse . . .' is rather unusual. 'Purchased at Plymouth' may have indicated that the 

 purchaser (Rev. Norman ?) had no direct information regarding collection, merely noting hearsay. 

 This kind of situation usually produces inaccuracy and we view the record with scepticism. 

 Boscastle, on the north-east, is an equally unlikely place from which to collect P. pavonica. The 

 village is set well back from the shore and has a harbour approached by a winding, rather narrow 

 cleft in the cliff; at intervals, particularly at the inner end toward the village, there are rather 

 flatter lateral areas subject to rather less strong water-movement, although swell, current, and 

 direct wave-action habitually create very rough water elsewhere in the approaches. It is difficult 

 to conceive that Holmes would misdetermine other material as Padina, especially since the record 

 was probably established from his own data; the annotation as to one of the 'rarer species' clearly 

 indicates appreciation of the unusualness of the record. Several visits to Boscastle (J. H. P. 1974, 

 1975, 1978) did not reveal Padina in the inner reaches of the harbour. The terrain does not in 

 any case encourage the expectation of locating the alga, although the possibility cannot be 

 excluded; the relatively calm detrital conditions in which Padina best appears are virtually 

 absent. We have to accept the Holmes record but, in the absence of supporting specimens, with 

 reservations. For comments on the general paucity of north coast and Bristol Channel data, 

 see below (Devon, North). 



All earlier Cornish records depend on statements by Morison & Bobart (1699); the imprecise 

 localisation did not prevent that original record being uncritically accepted and repeated over a 

 period of virtually 100 years. It has to be admitted that there is a Padina pavonica specimen (un- 

 localised) in the Morisonian Herbarium [OXF] (Vines & Druce, 1914 : 223). Although this speci- 

 men was not enough to prevent the record thereafter slipping into obscurity, Bobart (who was 

 responsible for the record in the first place) was not given to geographical inaccuracy and no doubt 

 is expressed in his 1699 statement. Stackhouse, who knew well the coasts of Cornwall in the late 

 18th and early 19th centuries, did not mention the species and there are no relevant specimens 

 amongst those with which he can be identified. Recent workers have never located specimens in 

 Cornwall. Widespread observation (J. H. P.) on the Lizard and in West Penwith confirms the 

 absence. For some unknown reason (perhaps that of breeding population size, discussed elsewhere), 

 the alga apparently does not maintain itself in the far west of England. 



Devon (North) 



Ilfracombe : 



ix.1837, Miss M. Williams (E). 



This single record occurs in an area with many locations where finds of Padina would not be 

 surprising. Watermouth harbour; parts of Hele Bay; the many mixed conditions of sand with 

 rocky reefs off Ilfracombe itself; and Lee Bay, could all provide circumstances like those support- 

 ing Padina elsewhere. This reflects the rather larger general problem - that of the few reports of the 

 alga in north Cornwall, north Devon, Glamorgan, and Pembroke, the general physical regimes in 

 which are all essentially similar. Why are there so few records from the shores of the whole Bristol 

 Channel, an area that (like both coasts of Cornwall) appears to embrace many potential local 



