A naturalist’s ramble in guernsey. 
153 
tbe original stock, which was Norman-French, making altogether 
a very expressive and by no means an inharmonious patois. If 
it seems to be rude and harsh, it is because you do not hear it 
kindly spoken ; because, perhaps, you listen to the contentions 
of the market-place, or the coarse voices on the pier—no language 
is euphonious in these places.” 
The inhabitants of the island are excessively exclusive and 
broken up into cliques ; one result of which is, that societies for 
mutual improvement, such as a Naturalists’ Society, are un- 
known there. This is much to be regretted, as there are few 
localities where natural history could be studied to greater 
advantage than here ; the area being so small, it could be 
thoroughly worked, and yet there need be no fear that the 
materials at command would soon be exhausted. 
The varieties of soil are very great, the cliffs, the low sandy 
sea-shore, and the marsh-land, each produces its peculiar plants : 
the number of flowering plants, exclusive of sedges and grasses, 
enumerated in Professor Ansted’s work, is 505. The list, 
though the latest, is notoriously inexact, and requires an 
authoritative revision. Such a work would fall to a Naturalists’ 
Society, if such existed, and, by putting himself into commu- 
nication with working members of it, the author would no doubt 
have been able to enjoy his stay there to a far greater extent, 
and to produce a much longer list of objects seen and studied. 
Indeed, had it not been for the most kind attention and valuable 
assistance of Mr. George Derrick, of St. Peter’s Port, even the 
sight of the most interesting plants in the island— -O^perus 
longuSf Oi'chis laxiflora, Spiranthes eestivalis — would not have 
been obtained. Spiranthis autumnalis and Scilla autumnalis 
were too widely distributed and far too abundant to have escaped 
detection ; they were to be met with everywhere along the 
coast in perfection in August ; but Pyrola rotundifolia, though 
plentiful where it did grow, was too local, and made a guide almost 
