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NOTES ON THE FLORA OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 



By G. Claridge Druce, M.A., F.L.S. 



In June and July of the sunny year 1906 I revisited the 

 Channel Isles after an ahsence of twenty-nine years. The pro- 

 longed drought had burned up the annuals and small Leguminosce, 

 but still much of interest was left, even on the dry sand-dunes of 

 St. Ouen's in Jersey, of L'Ancresse, Guernsey, or Longy Bay in 

 Alderney. Naturally the intervening years had left their mark on 

 the places visited ; St. Aubin's Bay, which in 1877 had some 

 considerable area of aboriginal soil, has now to a great extent 

 been built upon, the marshes drained, and a sea-wall built, much 

 to the detriment of many local species, and to the actual extirpa- 

 tion of Ranunculus ophioglossifolius, while the existence of Allium 

 sphcerocephalon in its only locality in the islands is imminently 

 threatened. At St. Ouen's the apparently useless sea-wall has 

 destroyed the locality for Diotis, and the golfers in their wild and 

 wandering course do an unnecessary amount of damage. Building 

 operations at St. Aubin's and St. Helier's have exercised their 

 usual malevolent influence. Still, the wide expanse of sand-dunes 

 at St. Ouen's remains much as it was, so far as its natural 

 conditions go, but the spread of Statice plantaginea, Brassica 

 CheiranthuSy and especially of the introduced La gurus, is very 

 remarkable. The Cape of Good Hope Gnaphalium undulation has 

 come to stay, and before a decade has passed Senecio Cineraria 

 will doubtless have become established. GSnothera odorata has 

 much extended its range in the island, and the profusion of 

 Kentranthus ruber in three tints of colour is a prominent feature 

 at St. Helier's. 



In Guernsey, especially on the eastern side, there has been a 

 much greater change, the extensive granite quarries have trans- 

 formed the face of the earth ; the destruction of the old salt-pans 

 at St. Sampson's is complete, the site being now occupied by 

 glass-houses or other buildings, and Suceda fruticosa and Poly- 

 pogon moiispeliense, which I once gathered there, are now extinct. 

 The marshes of the Grande Mare have become much smaller by 

 drainage, and what is left is less rich than formerly, the local 

 species — Spiranthes cestivalis, Pyrola rotund ifolia, and Carex punc- 

 tata — being now quite rare. The golfers have settled upon 

 L'Ancresse, and over the whole island there has been a great 

 eruption of habitations and glass-houses. To make up for plant 

 diminution Allium Ampeloprasum appeals to be now more frequent 

 near St. Peter's, and Erigeron mucronatum y Gunnera chilensis } and 

 Trachelium cceruleum are now established aliens. 



The two excellent local floras — that of Jersey, by Mr. Lester- 

 Garland, and the very comprehensive w T ork on Guernsey and the 

 adjacent islands by Mr. E. D. Marquand— deal very thoroughly 



and scientifically with the flora. 



Notwithstanding the havoc which the spread of population 

 and increasing attention to cultivation has caused, these islands 



