192 



RAMBLES IN SARK. 



belonging to rocky coasts, most of them plants whim are 

 never found far away from the sea, but flourish best when 

 within reach of the cool salt spray. Even a precipitous wall 

 of bare rock is dotted over with small bits of vegetation, 

 wherever a ledge or a cranny affords room for a particle of 

 soil to lodge. Cushions of pink-flowered Thrift, green tufts 

 of Samphire, clumps of Sea Campion, with fluttering white 

 flowers that look like flakes of foam, blue Sheepsbit, tough 

 roots of Portland Spurge, with its reddish stems and yellow- 

 green flowers, Navelwort, Sea Beet, Ivy, and many more, all 

 cling with a tenacious grip to the exposed face of the storm- 

 beaten granite cliff — and thrive. And in places where there 

 is no foothold for even these hardy plants, soft velvety mosses 

 and scaly lichens supply their place as the pioneers of 

 vegetation, aud furnish those little splashes of contrasting 

 colour which add so much charm and beauty to the landscape. 



The depth and intensity of colour of many flowers that 

 are eommon on the cliffs and in the hedges, has often impressed 

 visitors on their arrival from the inland counties of England. 

 The bright rose-pink of the Red Campion, for instance, and 

 the clear blue of the Germander Speedwell, always appear to 

 be deeper and more vivid than usual, and this no doubt is 

 owing to the purity of the air and the abundant sunshine. 

 The mere mention of these two common plants suggests the 

 thought of leafy hedgebanks and winding lanes, therefore w r e 

 may as well see wdiat these have to offer in the way of flowers. 

 But it is puzzling to know where to begin. 



The beauty of the Sark lanes is perhaps at its highest 

 just at that glorious season of the year when the Cuckoo and 

 the Swallows return to us from the south, and the two wild 

 flowers that are pre-eminently associated with the merry 

 spring-time — Primroses and Bluebells — appear in all their 

 profusion. Primroses abound on every bank and hillside, and 

 everybody gathers them ; but how many of those who gather 

 primroses by the handful have noticed that there are two 

 distinct forms of this beautiful flower, both of them equally 

 common, one with a sort of green pin's-head in the centre ; 

 the other with a delicately tinted rosette instead ? Bluebells 

 are not quite so abundant, but where they grow thickly, as for 

 instance in Dixcart Valley, they make a splendid display of 

 colour that is hardly to be rivalled. It may be mentioned, in 

 passing, that this plant is the true English Bluebell or Wild 

 Hyacinth, which Shakespeare speaks of as the " azured 

 harebell." But the flower which in Scotland is called the 

 Bluebell is another kind of plant altogether. 



