194 



RAMBLES IN SARK. 



Nettles, small plants not in the least like nettles, and quite 

 incapable of stinging ; the small Bindweed, with pink funnel- 

 shaped flowers ; two or three kinds of Speedwell, with flowers 

 of clearest blue ; Shepherd's Purse, easy to distinguish by its 

 triangular pouch-like seed vessels ; Cinquefoil, Knotgrass, 

 Silverweed, and several kinds of Dock. 



One could easily 'make out quite a lengthy list of plants 

 that appear to thrive on dusty roadsides ; but nearly all of 

 them are found also as weeds in gardens and cultivated ground 

 in general. In rich soil they grow more luxuriant, as on the 

 borders of cornfields and among agricultural crops ; and in 

 such places other species grow among them, plants like the 

 Corn Cockle, Red Poppy, Small Snapdragon, Sun Spurge, 

 Corn Marigold, Spurrey, and Mercury. 



These weeds of the roadside and cultivated ground grow 

 in soil which has been in some way prepared by human 

 operations ; and thus they differ from plants that grow in 

 virgin soil on the cliffs or in places where the ground has never 

 been ploughed or otherwise disturbed by man. The latter are 

 the true natives, the original inhabitants of this region, dating 

 back their ancestry to the remote period when these rocky 

 slopes first became " with verdure clad," and man had not as 

 yet appeared upon the scene. The weeds of our fields and 

 gardens are not true natives by descent, but have all been 

 introduced at a much later date from elsewhere, and always 

 through the direct or indirect agency of man. Even at the 

 present time new species are continually being brought in 

 among agricultural seeds, ballast and produce arriving from 

 foreign countries or from distant parts of our own land ; and 

 some of them succeed in establishing themselves in their new 

 home. But this is a digression. Let us return to our roadside 

 banks and hedges. 



Allusion has been made to the almost endless diversity 

 that exists in the shape of leaves ; but there is one peculiar 

 shape which is found only in two British plants, so that it is 

 easy to recognise them by the leaves alone. These are the 

 Wall Pennywort, also called the Navel wort, and the Marsh 

 Pennywort. The leaves in both species are round, and the 

 leafstalk springs from the centre of the leaf instead of from 

 one end in the ordinary way, so that the leaf assumes 

 somewhat the appearance of a mushroom. The Navel wort is 

 very common in Sark, growing in plenty on old walls, dry 

 banks, and thatched roofs ; while the Marsh Pennywort 

 (which has similar but smaller leaves) occurs in wet grassy 

 places or marshy streamsides, and the little white flowers are 



