1912.] 



IN MEMORIAL. 



343 



Perhaps the most memorable stroke of work in Mr. 

 Derrick's botanical career was the discovery in Guernsey as 

 far back as the year 1877 of Gymno gramma leptophi/Ua, a fern 

 which up to that time Avas supposed to grow only in Jersey. 

 Mr. Derrick was a great lover of ferns, and knew them 

 well. One day in the course of a walk in the country his 

 sharp eyes detected this delicate and graceful little fern 

 growing in considerable abundance in a heclgebank at St. 

 Saviour's. That was thirty-five years ago, and although the 

 plant still flourishes in its old habitat, it has never been 

 discovered anywhere else in these islands, in spite of deter- 

 mined and persistent searching as Avell by Mr. Derrick 

 himself as by many other botanists. It was a famous find, 

 quite on a par with Wolsey's discovery in 1854 of another 

 non-British fern, Ophioglossum lusitanicum, on the cliffs above 

 Petit Bot Bay. 



Mr. Derrick had quite a fair knowledge of the flowering 

 plants of these islands, though he was not by any means what 

 is called a critical botanist, in fact his acquaintance with 

 the indigenous flora was general rather than special. He 

 never troubled much about hair-splitting differences and 

 microscopical details : he was emphatically a field botanist, 

 and not a herbarian student, and it is probable that he would 

 not willingly have undertaken to name off-hand a miscellaneous 

 collection of dried plants. But once in the open country, on 

 the rugged cliff-sides, or in the shady water lanes he loved so 

 well, he was ever on the alert, watchful for something new : 

 his eyes were always wide open, and any unfamiliar flower 

 was carefully gathered and brought home for determination. 



The publication of a list of the Flowering Plants and 

 Ferns of Sark may be placed among the most important 

 of Mr. Derrick's achievements as a botanist. During a 

 series of visits extending over three years — 1896 to 1898— he 

 collected notes and materials which enabled him from personal 

 observation to draw r up an excellent and reliable localised list 

 of nearly 350 species of wild flowers growing in the small 

 island of Sark. This was a fine piece of work, and the 

 thoroughness of his search is proved by the fact that more 



