THE FLORA OF GUERNSEY. 



BY MR. E. D. MARQUAND. 



During the past three years I have devoted special attention 

 to the indigenous flora of Guernsey, with a view to ascertain 

 as far as possible the exact range of each species in the island. 

 I will not trouble you now with the result of my investigations 

 on the mosses, lichens and other cryptogams, as I hope later 

 on to prepare for the Society a paper on the subject. On 

 this occasion I shall simply deal with the flowering plants. 



Since the publication, as far back as the year 1839, of 

 Professor C. Cardale Babington's little Flora of the Channel 

 Islands (Primitice Florce Sarnicce) no properly authenticated 

 list of Guernsey plants has appeared; nor, so far as I am 

 aware, have any material additions been published — which 

 is somewhat surprising, considering the number of capable 

 botanists who have resided in the island, and visited it from 

 time to time, during the last fifty years. This little Flora has 

 long been out of print ; second-hand copies are scarce and 

 becoming more and more difficult to procure ; a handy 

 reference list therefore of the phanerogams of Guernsey seems 

 very much needed by resident workers as well as visitors ; — 

 hence the present paper. It is simply a summary of my own 

 notes made during the years 1889, 1890 and 1891, and is 

 entirely restricted to plants which I have myself seen growing 

 in the localities mentioned. 



Small as Guernsey is (the area being about 25 square 

 miles) its peculiar situation and its distance from the main- 

 land render the flora particularly interesting to the student ; 

 whilst from a mere collector's point of view few spots of equal 

 size in the south of England surpass it ; it is a perfect nest of 

 rarities. The entire absence of a number of quite common 

 English plants, and the extreme rarity of many others, is a 

 very remarkable feature, and one which it is not easy to 

 account for, since in most cases the same species are more or 

 less abundant on the French coast. And then again many 

 non-British plants which belong to the northwest of France 



