THE VEGETATION OF SMALL ISLETS. 



41 



I have felt a special interest in these isolated specks of 

 vegetation. However tiny and insignificant they may be, 

 however sparse and scanty the verdure, there is always 

 something to be learnt from them. On these exposed shores 

 one sees familiar plants dwarfed and starved almost beyond 

 recognition, and yet, strange to say, each one of them 

 " bearing seed after his kind," and thus filling its place 

 and doing its work in the economy of nature. So whenever 

 the opportunity has presented itself 1 have made it a point of 

 carefully cataloguing the plants found in such places. And 

 as my notes and lists have gradually accumulated, my interest 

 in the work has increased, because almost every one of these 

 detached bits of land, even the very smallest, presents some 

 feature which was quite unexpected, some unlooked-for sur- 

 prise. Very often islets, which are in other respects similar, 

 exhibit an astonishing disparity in their vegetable productions ; 

 and more often still it happens that some of the common 

 shore plants which abound on the coast close by, are, strangely 

 enough, entirely wanting. So far as we can see nothing is 

 missing which is favourable to their growth, and plenty of 

 seed is bound to be blown across each year from the shore 

 opposite, or carried by birds, and yet the plants refuse to 

 grow there. Something is wanting, but, as Darwin remarked, 

 what it is we do not know. 



Although every endeavour has been made to render the 

 lists as complete as possible, I cannot claim that they are 

 absolutely exhaustive in every instance, because it has been 

 impossible for me to pay a second visit to some of the distant 

 islets. But it may be stated that a pretty accurate and 

 critical knowledge of the flora of the Channel Islands has 

 enabled me to search with special care for certain species 

 which I considered most likely to occur, and their absence 

 from certain islets is quite as great a surprise to me as it will 

 be to any botanist who studies and compares these lists. 



I propose now to enumerate all the flowering plants and 

 ferns occurring on each of the islets and rocks which have 

 been examined, beginning with those that support the largest 

 number of species. The botanical names and classification 

 are those used in my Flora of Guernsey and the Lesser 

 Channel Islands , and exactly the same order is followed 

 in all the lists, so that it will be easy to compare one with 

 another. 



A catalogue of the plants of Lihou Island will be found 

 on page 471 of my Flora, and therefore it is not necessary to 

 reproduce it here. In the same work also there is given a 



