48 



THE VEGETATION OF SMALL ISLETS. 



Benest produces more than four times as many plants as 

 Houmet Homtolle. Or take Burhou, an island of considerably 

 greater land area than Lihou, but not yielding even one-fifth 

 of the number of species. It is true that Lihou stands much 

 closer to Guernsey than Burhou does to Alderney, and moreover 

 has been inhabited by man from ancient times, but making 

 every allowance for introduced plants, and having regard 

 simply to species which are truly indigenous, there is no com- 

 parison between the two islands from a botanical point of view. 



The singular absence of certain common shore plants from 

 particular islets is a curious circumstance which it is not easy 

 to account for. Samphire, for example, is one of our typical 

 maritime plants, growing in profusion on every rocky cliffside 

 and sandy shore throughout the Channel Islands. But it 

 does not occur at all either on Houmet Homtolle or on 

 Plat Houmet, and it is exceedingly scarce on Galeux and 

 Longue Pierre. The large and important order of Composite 

 appears to be always scantily represented or even wanting 

 altogether on very small islets. There are no plants at all be- 

 longing to this order on Plat Houmet, Longue Pierre, or 

 Burhou ; and five years ago when I went to Galeux there was 

 but one single plant on the islet, a fine vigorous specimen of 

 Sonclius oleraceus, flowering abundantly. I have often won- 

 dered since then whether this species had succeded in securing 

 a permanent footing in its windswept rocky home. 



Take another instance of restricted distribution. The 

 common Bracken Fern grows in the greatest profusion over a 

 large portion of Houmet Paradis, yet strange to say, not a 

 single frond of it is to be found on either of its sister 

 islets, Houmet Benest and Houmet Homtolle, which lie on the 

 right and left only a few hundred yards away. For ages 

 past every autumnal gale that has swept over this region must 

 have carried across to these two islets clouds of spores, for this 

 fern is abundant on the adjacent coast of Guernsey as well as 

 on the central islet, and yet they have not been able to find 

 there the conditions required for their germination and 

 development. 



But the most remarkable instance of absentee plants is 

 met with in the comparatively large island of Burhou. The 

 whole of it is so plentifully stocked with herbage that when 

 seen from the heights of Alderney on a clear summer morning 

 it may be accurately described as an emerald isle set in 

 a sapphire sea. Therefore it is all the more extraordinary 

 that throughout its entire length and breadth there should not 

 be found the smallest vestige of such abundant and universally 



