Flora of Guernsey and the Lesser Channel Islands - Namely, Alderney, Sark, Herm, Jethou, and the Adjacent Islets #269691

It seems hardly necessary to offer an apology for bringing out the present volume, considering that more than sixty years have elapsed since the publication of the only work dealing systematically with the flora of the Channel Islands, - Professor C. C. Babington's Primitiae Florae Sarnicae. The researches of later botanists have filled in many details which were only faintly outlined in that useful little book; while the cryptogamic flora, about which practically nothing was known in those early days, has received a fair measure of attention during recent times.<br><br>The great bulk of the notes embodied in these pages were collected during my residence in Guernsey from 1888 to 1895; and, although the record is by no means complete, it will serve as a fresh starting-point for future workers, by showing exactly what has been done up to the present time.<br><br>The plan adopted by Babington of enumerating under each plant all the different islands in which it is found, has not been followed on this occasion: because it seems to me that the botanical features of each island can be more clearly perceived when it is treated as an entirely separate area, possessing its own particular and distinctive flora. Botanists visiting this part of the kingdom will, I think, appreciate the advantage of the present arrangement.<br><br>From the summary which is given at the end of the general Introduction, it will be seen that the various islands have not all been worked up to the same level of thoroughness, more especially in the case of the lower cryptogams. No difficulty, however, will be experienced in comparing any section of the flora of one island with that of another, inasmuch as the botanical names and classification are the same throughout.<br><br>The notes on etymology and plant-lore which are given in the principal phanerogamic list will not be found to interfere with the strictly botanical portion of the work, and they may perchance interest those lovers of wild flowers who do not confine their studies merely to the dry bones of science.