RAMBLES IN SARK. 



191 



At the top of the cliffs in dry places, and occasionally in 

 waste corners in the interior of the island, we are very likely 

 to meet with Hemlock, a plant everybody has heard about, 

 but few people recognise, for there are several others that 

 look very much like it. In all stages of growth, however, 

 Hemlock may be known with certainty by its beautifully 

 divided leaves, and by the stems being quite smooth and 

 marked or spotted with dull purplish blotches. When bruised 

 it has a strong unpleasant smell, but it is a handsome plant, 

 although an extremely dangerous one, because every part of it 

 is highly poisonous. Speaking of poisonous plants reminds 

 one of another species, the Woody Nightshade, or Bittersweet, 

 found commonly in bushy places on the cliffs and elsewhere. 

 Its clustered flowers are very like potato blossoms, having the 

 five purple petals reflexed from a central yellow cone. The 

 Woody Nightshade must not be confused with the Deadly 

 Nightshade, a far more dangerous plant, which, however, does 

 not occur in Sark. 



Among the floral treasures of this island there is a small 

 plant which is so exceedingly rare in England (it grows in one 

 locality only, in Devonshire) that it has not earned for itself 

 a popular name, but is known to botanists as Bom idea (or 

 Trkhonerna) Columnce. It occurs here abundantly on the 

 cliffs where the vegetation is dwarf and scanty, but although 

 the plants occur in profusion in suitable places, only a small 

 proportion of them blossom each year. The flowers, pale 

 purple with a yellow centre, appear early in April ; they have 

 very short stalks, and are usually surrounded by a few long, 

 slender curly leaves that spring from a small bulb. Another 

 charming little bulbous plant called Ladies' Tresses shows its 

 delicate spike of white flowers pretty frequently in turfy 

 places during August and September, just the season when the 

 beautiful blue stars of the Autumnal Squill begin to appear. 



In looking about for these and other things, the eye is 

 sure to detect a host of flowers that were not noticed before 

 — they seem to spring up everywhere as if by magic — Cen- 

 taury, Tormentil, Ground Ivy, Field Madder, Cranesbill — it 

 would be easy to name a score of small plants in full blossom 

 scattered all about under one's feet, so that it is difficult to 

 avoid treading them down in walking along. 



As there are not anywhere in Sark low-lying commons 

 and sandy seashores such as we find in the other Channel 

 Islands, it accounts for the absence of a good many sand- 

 loving plants that are peculiar to those situations. But by 

 way of compensation there is a grand variety of species 



