THE FLORA OF ALDERNEY. 



BY MR. E. D. MARQUAND, EX-PRESIDENT. 



Of all the Channel Islands the one least visited by botanists 

 is Alderney. It is commonly believed to be a bleak, barren, 

 dreary sort of spot, utterly devoid of interest, and cut oft from 

 the rest of the world by an exceptionally tempestuous sea. 

 In an old book which has now become scarce, — Jacob's 

 Annals of the British Norman Isles, published in 1830, — 

 we are informed that " the botanist will be disappointed if his 

 sole object in visiting Alderney is to collect rare plants," — a 

 statement which loses some of its force, however, when the 

 author candidly confesses that he does not possess " the 

 microscopic eye of those who make botany their peculiar 

 study." 



The earliest trustworthy list of the wild flowers of 

 Alderney appears to have been the one compiled by the late 

 Professor C. C. Babington, of Cambridge, who visited the 

 island in 1838 and published the following year his Flora of 

 the Channel Islands under the title of Primitice Flora 

 Samicce. During the sixty years that have elapsed since 

 then no one seems to have given particular attention to the 

 subject, although both English and French botanists have 

 from time to time paid flying visits to the island. 



Knowing something about the flora of the other islands, 

 it appeared to me certain that Alderney would on closer 

 acquaintance present many features of interest, if only on 

 account of its proximity to the coast of France ; so I arranged 

 to spend a few months there during the past summer (1899) 

 in order to look into the botany of the island. And my 

 highest expectations have been abundantly realised. Instead 

 of being sterile and monotonous, Alderney is, from a botanical 

 point of view, one of the most interesting of all the Channel 

 Islands ; while at the same time it is a perfect paradise to the 

 weary brain-worker requiring rest. The coast scenery is 

 varied and hardly to be surpassed in wildness and beauty ; 

 the air delightfully pure and very bracing ; and there is 

 everywhere an indescribable sense of liberty and freedom 

 which is altogether lacking in the other islands. 



