In the month of February, or in some years as early as the end of January, the first large schools appear at the entrance of the English Channel, and are met by the more adventurous of the driftnet fishers many miles west of the Scilly Islands.
There is also a very ancient local tradition, apparently independent of the story of Lyonnesse, that the Scilly Islands formed part of the Cornish mainland within historical times.
In the Scilly Islands the plant becomes a great tree, in the warmth and moisture from the Gulf Stream.
