1091 



attention was Asplenium lanceolatum, as I had found more trouble in 

 growing this plant, either in or out of a case, than with most other 

 ferns, either British or foreign. This plant is far more abundant in 

 the western than in the eastern part of the Island ; and, somewhat to 

 my surprise, I found it flourishing under very different conditions of 

 light and moisture. Near Grosnez, it is found growing in the crevi- 

 ces of the stone walls, fully exposed to the blaze of the sun, scarcely 

 attaining, however, the height of more than one or two inches, and 

 with very crisp and curled fronds. It attains its greatest develop- 

 on the top of densely shaded sandstone banks at St. Aubin's, where 

 its fronds are a foot in height, and the soil very dry ; and likewise in 

 the inside of wells, one or two of which were completely lined with it, 

 where it must have been growing undisturbed for yeai's, from the 

 great number of fronds springing from a single root. One specimen 

 that I gathered, in the inside of a well between Roselle and Bou- 

 lay Bay, had 120 more or less perfect fronds upon it, besides 

 portions of the footstalks of sixty or seventy others. These fronds 

 were twelve or thirteen inches in height. In all cases the plants are 

 surrounded by a mild and humid atmosphere, free from soot or dust ; 

 and both the Asplenium and Gymnogramma would succeed best with 

 us with a little protection. This will not be a matter of surprise, 

 when the mildness of the climate of Jersey is taken into account, 

 where the giant cabbage grows to the height of twelve or thirteen feet, 

 the mellow pears attain a weight of two or three pounds, and the 

 Hydrangea is loaded with many hundred heads of flowers,* 



The phgenogaraous vegetation of Jersey is rather disappointing to 

 one who, like myself, has been accustomed to botanize on the chalk- 

 hills in Kent, from the total absence of many of our most interest- 

 ing ornamental plants. No Campanula is to be seen, and very few 

 of the Orchideae, &c. But upon this part of the subject I need not 

 dilate, as M. Piquet has most kindly favoured me with the result of 

 his long-continued and patient observations, in a list, for which, I am 

 sure, your readers will be much indebted to him. The mosses were 

 mostly dried up ; but I was much struck with the pictorial effect of 

 the Didyniodon purpureum on the slope of a sunny hill, where the 

 furze had been cut and burnt.f When I first saw the plant, I thought 

 it was Funaria hygrometrica, which is frequently found under similar 



* Mv. S. Curtis, of Roselle, mentioned to me one specimen in which he had 

 counted 2700. 



t Nearly two acres were covered with this moss, with a few patches intermixed of 

 Sedura anglicum, whose leaves rivalled the capsules of the moss in colour. 



