Rich as are the Devonshire seas in fish, they are richer still in crustaceans—crabs, lobsters, prawns, shrimps and their allies; and in this respect ours is the premier county of England. Among a multitude of species, two which have occurred nowhere else in Britain may be specially singled out. One of these is the burying-shrimp, Callionassa subterranea, a little creature something like a very small lobster, with one claw—sometimes the right and sometimes the left—very much larger than the other. It was one of Montagu's many discoveries, and was found two feet deep under the sand of the Kingsbridge estuary. The other rare species is the turtle-crab, Planes minutus, a few specimens of which have been drifted ashore on fronds of Sargasso weed. The "small grasshoppers" which Columbus saw floating in the sea a few days before he sighted the New World, were, it is believed, not grasshoppers, but turtle-crabs.
Other and very beautiful forms of marine life, such as starfish, anemones, corals and other zoophytes, and sea-shells are very abundant. And in spite of the comparative scarcity of lime in the soil of Devonshire, the list of land and freshwater shells is a long one. It is remarkable that Limnaea stagnalis and Planorbis corneus, two water-shells that are common in Somerset, are unknown in Devon. The pearl-bearing mussel, Unio margaritifer, is found in both the Taw and the Teign.
The county is rich in insects, especially as regards butterflies, moths, and beetles; but several of the first-named which have been caught in Somerset have not been recorded here. The black-veined white (Pieris crataegi), once a common insect, has disappeared within the last forty years, and the greasy fritillary (Melitaea Artemis)—another vanishing species—is now almost extinct. Neither insect can have been hunted down for the sake of its beauty or its rarity, and the reason for this disappearance is unknown.
Spurge Hawk Moth, with Pupa and Caterpillar
As in the case of birds, the county is, from its position, a favourite alighting-place for insects coming from abroad. Between 1876 and 1890 large numbers of a very striking and beautiful American butterfly, Danais plexippus, appeared in England, having apparently crossed the Atlantic, and three specimens were caught in Devonshire. The Lulworth skipper (Hesperia Actaeon), a small butterfly which elsewhere is only found in Dorset, occurs along the south-east coast of this county. Moths are very abundant, and the first recorded British examples of several species were taken in Devonshire.
About a hundred years ago, caterpillars of the spurge hawk-moth (Deilephila euphorbiae) were very plentiful on spurge plants growing among the sand-hills near Barnstaple. Many of these caterpillars were taken by naturalists, and were reared, and ultimately turned into perfect insects; although neither there nor anywhere else in our island was a wild example of this very beautiful moth ever seen alive. The spurge plants were long ago covered up by drifting sand, and the caterpillars were all destroyed. No other locality for them has been found in England, and as far as this country is concerned the spurge hawk-moth appears to be extinct.
As might be expected in a district of such varied physical features, with so mild a climate and such an ample rainfall, the flowering plants of Devonshire are very numerous, no fewer than 1156 species having been recorded. The abundance and beauty of its wild-flowers is one of the characteristics of the county. No one who has ever seen them will forget the wonderful wealth of primroses in some of the river valleys—at Holne, for example—or the splendour of the ling-empurpled sweeps of Dartmoor, or its sheets of golden gorse; or the marvellous mist of bluebells upon woodland slopes or in the shelter of straggling hedgerows. Each several district, sea-shore and salt-marsh, moor and bog, wood and valley, has its own distinct and characteristic flora. One Devonshire plant, the Romulea or gênotte, Romulea columnae, a Mediterranean species with very small pale blue flowers, is abundant on the Warren at the mouth of the Exe, but grows nowhere else in England, although it is found in Guernsey. Several plants occur in only one other English county; such for instance are the white rock-rose, Helianthemum polifolium, and the Irish spurge, Euphorbia hibernica, which are confined to Devon and Somerset, and the "flower of the Exe," Lobelia urens, which grows only in Devon and Cornwall. Three plants, which are very abundant in Somerset, the cowslip, the sweet violet, and the mistletoe, are rare in this county, although not unknown. The first plants of sea-kale ever brought into cultivation were originally dug up on Slapton sands; and the vegetable came into note in Bath about 1775.
Ferns are characteristic of Devonshire. Not only are most of the familiar kinds abundant, but rarer species as the true maiden-hair, two filmy ferns, and the parsley fern (Cryptogramme crispa) are to be found. The magnificent royal fern, Osmunda regalis, still grows in some of the river valleys, and especially in Holne Chase, but it has suffered much from the greed of collectors, and the raids of unscrupulous dealers. A great variety of spleenworts has been recorded for the county, and one of the characteristic hedgerow ferns is the pretty little Asplenium adiantum-nigrum. Mosses, also, are very abundant, and there is one kind which occurs nowhere else in Britain. In sea-weeds Devonshire is richer than any other county except Dorset. Among its 468 different species is the Sargasso or Gulf-weed, sprays of which are sometimes thrown ashore after rough weather.