32 : GUERNSEY. 
they abound; but it is in the deep, shady water-lanes of the south 
that they are seen in their greatest luxuriance and beauty. With the 
exception of the Scale Fern or Rustyback (Ceterach officinarum) and 
the Wall Spleenwort (Asplenium Trichomanes), both .of which are 
decidedly rare, most of the common English ferns are found here in. 
plenty. The Hart’s-tongue (Scolopendrium vulgare) is unusually 
abundant, and the fronds often attain a length of three feet or more. 
The Sea Fern (Asplenium marinum) is common on the coast, often: 
abundant in caves and caverns moist with sea-spray, but generally 
in inaccessible places high up on the walls or roof, having been dug 
out wherever it could be reached. 
The Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis), the noblest of them all, has. 
now entirely disappeared. It used to be plentiful in days gone by, 
but its reputed medicinal] virtues created a demand for it, so that it 
was sought after by herbalists; and the remnant that escaped has. 
since fallen a prey to the insatiable rapacity of senseless fern- 
grubbers. The Adder’s-tongues ( Ophzoglossum) are well represented, 
for in no other spot in the kingdom can all the three British forms. 
be found. The small one (O. Zusttanicum) was discovered in 1854, 
and for more than thirty years was supposed to be rare, but during 
the winter of 1889-90 I proved it to be so widely distributed and 
abundant on the southern cliffs as to dispel all fear of possible 
extirpation. 
The so-called Jersey Fern (Gymnogramme leptophylla), another 
non-British species, is exceedingly rare, and appears to be confined 
to the one spot where it was first detected by Mr. G. T. Derrick in 
1877. ‘The secret of its habitat has been so jealously preserved that 
hardly half a dozen persons have ever seen this delicate and graceful 
little fern growing in Guernsey ; so it continues to hold its ground, 
though I have observed that, being an annual, it is more plentiful in 
some seasons than in others. Mr. Derrick has informed me that on 
more than one occasion he has endeavoured to establish it elsewhere 
in this island, but without success. 
_ One of the most remarkable of all indigenous plants — and 
interesting also from the fact that it is found nowhere in the United 
Kingdom except in Guernsey—is Jscetes Hystrix, a very curious 
species, with a spinous, subterranean bulb and a tuft of slender, 
dark green leaves. It occurs more or less plentifully in several 
parts of Lancresse Common, but it is an extremely difficult little 
thing to detect, necessitating much patient searching on hands and 
knees, and, until one knows it, the digging up of many plants which 
prove to be something else. Zsvetes Hystrix was discovered here by 
Wolsey in 1860, and it was a particularly interesting find of his— 
better even than Ophioglossum ‘usitanicum, because at that date the 
existence of a terrestrial /sve¢es was hardly suspected, though several 
aquatic species were known. An exhaustive paper by Dr. D. H. 
Scott, F.R.S., on the structure and affinities of this singular plant, 
