THE MOSSES AND HEPATICiE OF SARK. 



BY MR. E. D. MARQUAND, A.L.S. 



Up to last year practically nothing whatever was known about 

 the Mosses and Hepaticae of the island of Sark, — only nine 

 species being on record. That this has been owing to the 

 absence of observers, and not to the poorness of the locality is 

 shown by the following list, from which it is evident that Sark 

 possesses many attractions for the diligent student of these 

 lowly plants. 



In the early autumn of 1902 Mr. C. P. Hurst (to whom 

 we are indebted for an exhaustive Flora of the small island of 

 Brechou) started upon the collection of the mosses of Sark, 

 but his researches were unhappily soon cut short by a very 

 serious accident, which he sustained whilst botanising on a 

 precipitous part of the cliffs. Mr. G. Derrick, however, was 

 able to continue the work during his three visits to Sark at 

 different seasons, so that with only two or three exceptions the 

 whole of the mosses and hepatica? enumerated in the following 

 pages were collected by him. Although Mr. Derrick is not a 

 bryologist, he is a first-rate collector, and he has done excellent 

 work by the indiscriminate gathering of specimens in all kinds 

 of localities where mosses grow ; and these he has forwarded 

 to me in a fresh state for identification. 



All the hepaticae so far found in Sark are known to occur 

 in Guernsey ; but three mosses (Pottia criniia, Ceratodon 

 conic us and Fontinalis antipyretica) have not as yet been 

 discovered in the latter island, though I have very little doubt 

 that they will ultimately be found. But it is between Sark 

 and Alderney that the most interesting comparisons can be 

 made, by reason of the nearly equal size of the two islands, 

 and at the same time their distance apart of sixteen or eighteen 

 miles. Now, even in the present list, imperfect as it is, there 

 are no less than nine mosses, viz., Polytrichum formosum, P. 

 abides, Ceratodon conicus, Bartramia pomiformis, Mnium 

 undulatum, Fontinalis antipyretica, Pterygophyllum lacens, 



