310 REPORTS. 



Digitaria sanguinalis, Scop. About a dozen roots of this handsome 

 grass were growing in August on the side of a lane behind Lancresse 

 Lodge, Vale. New to the Sarnian Islands, although not rare, and 

 considered native, in Jersey. 



One of the most delightful surprises of the year, at 

 least to me, was the re-discovery of the long-lost Great 

 Reed Mace ( Typha latifolia), a fine waterside plant which 

 at one time flourished in Guernsey, but which was believed 

 to have become extinct thirty or forty years ago, owing 

 to the drainage of marshy land. In September I discovered 

 a large patch of it in flower in an old quarry about a 

 quarter of a mile to the east of the Vale Church. The 

 plant is inaccessible without the use of a boat, or by swim- 

 ming, as it grows in the water at the foot of the deep per- 

 pendicular face of the quarry. 



Another very interesting find was Scleranthus annuus, 

 which Mr. Derrick found erowiiie on the cliffs near Mont 

 Herault, during the Society's excursion to Pleinmont in 

 August. This plant had not been seen in Guernsey for 

 very many years. It occurs on the cliffs in Alderney and 

 Herm, but is extremely rare ; it is more common, however, in 

 Sark. 



Some time ago, among the unconsidered treasures of 

 the Museum, I found a collection of plants preserved in 

 sheets of white paper tied up in brown wrappers. There 

 is nothing whatever to indicate by whom this collection 

 was made, or to whom it originally belonged ; but the 

 collector was undoubtedly a capable botanist, as all the 

 specimens are most carefully laid out, accurately named, 

 and in excellent preservation. Many of the plants are 

 dated in the early forties : some as early as 1838 and 1839 

 (the very time when Professor Babington visited the Channel 

 Islands, and published the Flora S arnica) and a few in 

 the fifties. The bulk of the specimens have unfortunately 

 no locality noted, but where places are mentioned they are 

 all in Guernsey or Herm. 



The following species are included in the collection 

 and are particularly interesting, as they show where some 

 of our rarest plants grew sixty years ago, though since 

 then they seem to have disappeared from these stations : — 



Hypericum linarifolium. Moulin Huet, 1845. This is the earliest 



record we have of this very rare species. 

 Galium saxatile. Saints Bay, 1839. Only recorded hitherto from 



L'Ancresse where it is very local. 

 Fragaria vesea. A specimen is marked " Cat el," but no date is given. 

 Inula Conyza. Clarence Battery, 1842. Very likely this is Babington's 



old station for the plant ; " Fort George, Guernsey." 



