The TOUHG HATUEAUST: 



A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 125. APRIL 1st, 1882. Vol. 3. 



THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 



MORE than once the question has 

 been asked us, why is the Flora 

 of the Channel Islands included in lists 

 of British Plants, while the Fauna is 

 never so included ? We confess we 

 are unable to give a satisfactory answer 

 to the enquiry, but it appears to us 

 that the Fauna is rightly excluded, and 

 we would like to know why the Flora 

 should not share the same fate. The 

 Channel Islands are close to the French 

 coast and some sixty miles from the 

 nearest English land. The island of 

 Heligoland is in a somewhat similar 

 position, being very near the German 

 shores while it is very far from our 

 own. There is, however, one notice- 

 able political difference between the 

 two. The Channel Islands were a part 

 of Normandy at the time of the Nor- 

 man conquest, and while the varioas 

 possessions the English crown held in 

 France slipped from her grasp some 

 centuries ago, these islands have ever 

 remained under our government. 

 Heligoland only came into our handg 

 in the early part of the present centuryJ 

 and though we believe the inhabitant^ 



call themselves Englishmen with some 

 degree of pride, there has never been 

 a shadow of pretence on which its 

 Fauna or Flora could have been incor- 

 porated with our own. It may be a 

 consequence of the Channel Islands 

 having belonged to us for so many 

 centuries that their Flora was incor- 

 porated with ours before the importance 

 of the matter <vas rightly understood, 

 though if this were the case we would 

 expect to find the Fauna included also. 

 Be this as it may, the really important 

 question is, is the Flora rightly inclu- 

 ded or the Fauna rightly excluded? 

 We venture to state our opinion that 

 exclusion ought to obtain. The dis- 

 tance from our own shores is an im- 

 portant item in the question. It is 

 generally understood that there was a 

 time when the English coast was united 

 with the opposite continent, and that 

 either by wasting away, or by depres- 

 sion, or perhaps by both, separation 

 took place many long ages ago. That 

 the plants and animals insulated in 

 Britain were from that time subject to 

 the usual conditions of an insular Flora 

 or Fauna, and like all such insular 

 groups are of special interest, as show- 



