NOTES IN JERSEY AND GUERNSEY. 199 



companionship in the former island ; and have put together my jottings 

 about some of the more interesting members of the flora, in the belief 

 that few British botanists have examined the spring vegetation. 



At this season, the botany of the tracts of sandy ground near the sea 

 best repays attention. It consists of a dwarf vegetation of numerous 

 species, and great beauty. The prevalent species in flower in such plac(:S 

 during my visit to Jersey were CochUaria danica, Mcenchia erecta, Sagina 

 apetala vera, Arenai'ia serjjyUifolla vera, Ccrastmm sem.idecandnim, Orni- 

 thopiis pe7'pnsilliis, Alchemilla arvensis, Saxrfrarja tridactyUtes, Valerla- 

 nella oUtoria and V. carinata, Myosotis colUiu, Plantago Goronopns, 

 Carex arenaria, and a maritime state of Bromus mollis, all of very small 

 size. These formed the bulk of the close turf; but scarcely less abundant 

 were Cnpsella Bursa-pastoris, Teesdalia nndlcatd'is, Arabls ThaJiaiia, 

 Draba verna mojuacnla, Stellaria Boraava, Erodinm cicutarium, Trifuliuiti 

 siibterraneum and T. minus, Vicia angnsiifolia and V. lathyroides, Myosotis 

 versicolor, Phleum arenarium and Mibora minima, the last varying consi- 

 derably in size and in the colour of the glumes. Equally connnou was a 

 dwarf Pansy, which agrees well with the description of V. nemausensis, 

 Jord. in Boreau's ¥1. du Centre, p. S3, and with Billot's specimens so 

 named, from La Kochelle (n. 1127 ter). This seems to be the V. tricolor, 

 var. y. mediterranea, of Gren. and Godr. i. 183, and is certainly the 

 var. 6. nana of Lloyd's Fl. de I'Ouest, p. 70. The petals are pale bluish- 

 white, a little shorter than the sepals, and the spur blue. A Cerastium 

 was also abundant in places, which, in consequence of all the bracts being 

 entirely herbaceous, I at the time considered to be C. tetrandrum. Curt. ; 

 and Mr. Stratton and Mr. A. G. More, who have both had opportunities 

 of studying the plants of this genus in the Isle of Wight, also refer the 

 Channel Islands specimens to C. tetrandrum. They appear, however, to 

 deviate considerably from the typical tetrandrum in mode of branching as 

 well as in the direction of the pedicels, and I am now inclined to place the 

 plant rather under the C. pmnilum of Curtis (= C. obscurum, Boreau), of 

 which several forms are distinguished by the French and German botanists. 

 I cannot, however, consider C. pumilum specifically distinct from C. tetran- 

 drum. Large green specimens of the Jersey plant, with elongated intcr- 

 nodes, are perhaps the C. pediinculatum of Babington, described and figured 

 as a species in the second volume of the JMag. of Zool. and Bot., but which 

 lie subsequently referred to C. tetrandrum. Less common species noticed 

 wilhthose above named were Polygala depressa, Medicago denticidata, Trifo- 

 liumfiliforme, Trichonema Columna (which was in good flower and quantity 

 by the second martello tower in St. Aubin's Bay), and Scilla aulumnalis, 

 of course not in flower. With the Trichonema a Ilerniaria occurred, which 

 seems to me to be the ciliated form of //. vulgaris, L., of Babington. 

 Dr. Boswell Syme, however, refers all plants from the Channel Islands he 

 has seen to //. ciliata, Bab., but my specimens differ in habit from 

 authentic specimens of this doubtfully-distinct species from Cornwall. 

 The remarkable desolate tract in the west of Jersey called tlie Quenvais 

 would well reward a very careful search ; a rapid walk in a straight/ line 

 across it showed, besides most of the species already recorded above, 

 abundance of Euphorbia Faralias and E. portlandica, Schosnus nigricans, 

 Silene conica just in flower, and plenty of Ilutckinsia petrtsa, a species not 

 previously recorded for the district, though detected in very small quan- 

 tity last year in some other part of the island. Though this plant is in 



