# Midland Naturalist/Volume 01/Professor Edward Forbes and His Country (continued)

Biography of Edward Forbes (continued)
Professor Edward Forbes and His Country.
By Robert Garner. F.L.S.
[Continued from page 70.]
The Maritime Flora is more ample in species than the Lowland or Upland, probably as rich as that of any portion of the British Isles of the same size. There are about 100 species of flowering shore-plants around our Islands, and more than sixty of these are found around the Isle ​of Man; for instance, on the southern cliffs, about Peel Castle, on the sands to the north of Ramsey, and at Maughold, remarkable also for its rock scenery, and for its antiquities. There is a deficiency, however, of some southern and south-eastern maritime species, as might be expected from climatal considerations, without reference to any geographical changes. But, confining ourselves to the inland, it will appear upon the whole, that the Isle of Man, like other small isolated tracts of country, is rather limited in the number of its plants, and Forbes was led to philosophise on this point. There appears to be reason to suppose that the island was not isolated from Ireland till (geologically speaking) modern times, and be thought that this agreed with the extension to Man of certain (so-called) Lusitanian species, which he names, Pinguicula lusitanica, Scirpus Savii, &c.; and also that the absence of certain southern species, if it is not from climatal inadequacy, may likewise be set down to an analogous cause, the separation of the outer islands, whilst England still made part of the Continent, thus allowing such plants to extend themselves in it, but not further. As regards truly mountainous—or what is tantamount—northern species, the above absence or paucity holds good, but from another cause. In the main islands some of these have been supposed to have survived glacial times by their fixity on the summits of high mountains, elevation being tantamount to latitude and lower temperature. Perhaps the Manx hills were never very high, but, if may be, half submerged, and receiving their deposits of clays and drifts, whilst those of Scotland and Wales wore the seats of glaciers.
With this floral deficiency it is rather interesting to observe how many plants, which are not truly indigenous, have escaped from ancient homesteads and gardens, and have become quite ab home, ag well as luxuriant; slowing that islands and isolated places often grow in great perfection plants which are not native, when once introduced. Horticulturists are aware of this proclivity of the island. Such interlopers are the following:—Spiren aalteifelia, Senecio suracenicus, Inula Helenium, Gnaphalium margaritaceum, Pyrethrum Balsanita, Balsamite vulgaris, Lavatera maritima, Antirrhinum Orontium, Reseda fruticluosa, Saponaria officinalis, Myrvihis odorata, Petroselinum sativum, Vinca major, and, perhaps, other plants of similar origin. The Irish arbutus, hydrangea, fuchsia, myrtle, ilex, euonymous, jasmine, escalonia, Buddleia, and tree-veronicas are very luxuriant in the open air. The cowslip appears to be absent, ​and Forbes adds the dead-nettle, the avens, the toad-flax, the cross-leaved bedstraw, and a few other plants; but, considering the small extent of the ground, this is not remarkable. One of the bedstraws (Galium verum) is so profuse that the air in July is filled with its perfume. To the relations of the Manx Flora and Fauna we shall again advert hereafter. There is, perhaps, greater affinity of the Flora to that of the nearest Scotch or English lands than to that of North Wiles; thus, one of the few sub-alpine plants assigned to the island, Saxifraga aizoides, is rather an English than a Welsh plant.
Contrary to what we have observed as regards the island flora generally, few spots are more productive in marine productions of the animal kingdom, and the Manx mollusca were especially studied by Forbes, and that as found at different depths, or in what he termed bathymetrical zones—liitoral, laminarian, coralline, infra-medial, and abyssic. The last he had little opportunity of examining, and erroneously concluded that life soon ceased in it, Forbes considered that the Irish Sea is a kind of neutral ground, zoologically speaking, and his own island is somewhat curiously situated in the centre of if; but there are fewer of his Lusitanian species of mollusca than of plants, many Atlantic or western species, and a few of a south-British character; the generality may be said to be rather Celtic especially than European, with a small per-centage of boreal species. Forbes also paid great attention to the animals themselves in contradistinction to their shells. and in his later works to their geological distribution, In 1838 he published his "Malacologia Monensis," and in 1853 the "British Mollusca," in conjunction with Mr. Hanley. In the Malacologia he teaches that "a species is defined, unalterable, original, approaching but never uniting. Varieties are forms depending on local or accidental causes, diverging from the normal type, but often, and with facility, returning to it." Would he have spoken so decidedly in these days?
In Douglas market may often be seen at least a score of different kinds of fish, so bountiful are our seas to the island, set as it were in their centre. Forbes dredged off Ballaugh, where, however, at the present time, there are fewer facilities for doing so than at Ramsey. The Ballaugh scallop-bed is about four miles out, in twenty or thirty fathoms, and with deeper water on each side; similar reefs occur off Maughold Head and Laxey, and these may he easily dredged by the aid of the Ramsey boatmen. The bottom off Douglas is different, being coralline, with beds of Pectunenli. Port Ertu is a good locality for the Naturalist, the fishing lines and lobster pots bringing up many interesting specimens.
Of land and fresh-water shells, Helix aspersa abounds in the island, H. lapicida seems scarce. Limax gagates was found near Peel by Forbes, bot he did not detect the minute Achatina. Many of the larger Lininzel, as well as Anodon, Patludina, and Cyclostoma are absent, as they are mostly from Ireland and the North of Britain, but rather at home in the south, seeming as if they had invaded England. ​before it had ceased to be continental, but after Ireland and the Isle of Man had become separated from it. Unio Roissyi Forbes found in the river at Kirk Braddon, and we there picked up some fragments of the valves.
The young Naturalist records finding the bone (so called) of the cuttle-fish on the Manx coast, but the animal is in reality somewhat a southern species; we got a large mass of the ova of another cephalopod (Ommastrephes todarus) off the Calf, resembling in everything but size those of Sepiola. To the naked-gilled molluscs which he records in the Malacologia must be added the beautiful Dendronotus arborescens from near the same place, and the fine Doris tuberculata or Argo found on Consastor and elsewhere, as in a cavern at the foot of Peel Castle rock; also Eolis viridis and Aplysia at Douglas, Of the shelled gasteropods we got Capulus Hungaricus, Emarginula fissara, and Fissurella Græca from the Ramsey scallop-bed, as Forbes had already done; Trochus Montagui and timidus, Douglas: Amæa testadinalis, Ramsey; A. virginea, much more common than the last on scallop shells; Trophon clathratus; lastly, Chiton Asellus and cancellatus, F, and H., must be added to the list. Of the common limpets, under the name of flitters, the poorer Manx make their soup.
As regards bivalve molluscs we might expect to meet with Brachiopoda in the deeper water around the island, and our friend found a single specimen of Crania at Ballaugh. Ramsey is rich in bivalves. I found a specimen of Isocardium cor there, many years back, with the valves still united by the ligament; also Pecten tigrinus, living, in the scallop-bed; Tellina incarnata, Douglas; Venus verrucosa, fine living species of this southern species, both at Douglas and Ramsey; Tapes aurea and decussata; Solecurtus candidus; Psammobia Tellinella, Douglas, by the dredge: these, with the exception of the last species, are not in Malaecologia Monensis. We append in a note a List of other species, all of which we have found, but which are generally in that work, also of Crustacea, mostly brought up by the dredge or in the lobster pots.
We dredged Comatula rosacea off Douglas, but get it much finer between Port Erin and the Calf, from the source already alluded to. ​Asterias glacialis, from the same place, was a splendid object when just taken up from the sea, of which Forbes’s figure in the British Star Fishes (1841) gives but a poor idea; it reminds one rather of the frame work of a crown, with the jewels all gone. Luidia fregilissima, (lingthorn,) Goniaster Templetoni, and Asterina gibbosa. Off Ramsey occurred Ophinra granulata and albida, besides O. rosula, bellia, brachiata, and neglecta, recorded by the Professor, as were Uraster hispida, Solaster endeca, and the beautiful Palmipes, long since taken by us. but in a different locality, namely, the Diamond Fishing-ground, in the British Channel, possibly named from the occurrence of the animal, which is so called by the Sussex fishermen.
The Isle of Man appears, then, upon the whole, to have more affinity to Ireland than to its other surroundings. It has no mole, toad, or snake, as is the case with the latter country, and both had the great elk, which was occasionally engulfed in their deep curraghs. The frog was a new importation in both countries in Camden's time, though it is now common, There are newts in the island, the crested and smooth, and as many lizards, Lacerta agilis and Zootoca vivipara, Bell. The hedgehog was originally introduced, but is now common, The pole-cat is absent, but the stoat is common, the only species of the Mustelidæ, as it is in Ireland. The water-rat is found, the squirrel is absent. The tailless cat is, probably, aboriginal, both here and in Cornwall. Many of the Manx fowls are destitute of tail feathers. There may be some physical reasons for these peculiarities, but what they are must he left for others to explain. The habits and language of the natives are also allied to those of the Irish, with, no doubt, a trace of the Scandinavian.
One bird derives its specific name from Mona, the Manx shearwater, but it no longer frequents its ancient resort, the Calf. That peculiarly British bird, the grouse, has become extinct. The magpie is recorded to have been brought to the island by man; and Camden says there are no woodpeckers, jays, or mawps(?). The mischievous Irish or grey crow, and the red crow or chough, are more common in some parts than the black crow, The raven end peregrine falcon are not absent from the highest rocks. There are, also, the long-eared owl, the heron, and a host of interesting sea-birds.
* ↑ Spergula maritima, Cerastium tetrandrum, Chenopodium murale, Arenaria marina, Ilyoscyamus niger. At the Stack of Scarlet, Samolus Valerandi, and Ænannthe crocata.
* ↑ Salsola Kali, Ruscus aculeatus, Cakile maritima, Crambe maritima, Glaux maritima, Convolvulus Solanella, and Tamarix.
* ↑ Crithnium maritinum, Scilla verna, Silene maritima, Allium vineale, and Asplenium maritimun. After a storm, enormous fronds of Lammarta bulbosa, L. saccharina, and A. esculenta are cast on the shore; these deep-water Fuci are most productive of iodine, which, however, can only be here manufactured to pay when the drug is high in price.
* ↑ Costmary, or Ale-cost, smelling strongly of spearmint, but bitter. It was formerly used in brewing, and was introduced from Italy more than three centuries ago. It grows about old cottage enclosures, and the Marx call it sweet-leaf. Unless seen in flower it somewhat resembles Pyrethrum Balsamita, called camphor-plant, which is quite naturalised.
* ↑ Forbes perceived the specific value of the variations in British Polygalæ, and the very different forms which Euphrasin takes in some situations.
* ↑ My specimens appear to be E. Mülleri.
* ↑ Also fine specimens of Trochus Magus and sizyphinus, with a white variety of the latter found on Conaster Rock. Bullæa aperta, Natica Alderi.
* ↑ Bivalve Mollusca—Lima fragilia. Ramsey scallop-bed; Cardium Norvegicum; Lucina flexuosa, L. borealis; Lucinopsis undata, Ramsey; Cyprina Islandica, sometimes with a large growth of serputæ attached, Ramsey; Mactra stultorum, Ramsey; M. elliptica, Douglas; M. truncata and asubtruncata; Astarte Danemoniensis; Artemis eiexoleta, Ballaugh. A. lineta; Venus ovata, V. casina, V. fasciata, Ramsey, V. galiina; Psammobia Ferroensis, Ramsey by the dredge, P. vespertina less plentiful than the last. And also Tellina crassa et aliæ, Donax anatina (minor, nitida), Nucla margaritacea and tenuis, Pectunculus Glycimeris, Solea marginatus, Syndosmya intermedia et aliæ, Anomia striata found on the inner surface of Pectens, very delicate, the lower or perforated valve convex, though often scarcely present.
* ↑ Crustacea—Stenorhynchus Phalangium, Bell, Port Erin; Inachus Dorsettensis ibid, I. Dorynchus, ibid; Pina Gibbsii; Eurynome aspera, Douglas; Pilumnus hirtellus, Port Erin; Portunus corrugatus, ibid; Ebalia Pennantii. Ramsey scallop bank; Porcellana longicornis, ibid; Galathea squaemifera, Douglas bay, under stones, G. strigosa, much bigger than the last, Port Erin. Astacus Norvegicus is seen in quantities in Douglas market.
This work was published before January 1, 1930, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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