peat-mosses and submerged forests.[1] In the south of England extensive forests occurred in Neolithic times, when the existing peat-mosses began to form; but in other parts of the three kingdoms it is probable that the pine existed in many places in historic times.[2]
Of its existence in a wild state until lately in England, the evidence is very meagre. Holinshed,[3] writing in 1586, says: "The firre, frankincense, and pine we do not altogether want, especiallie the firre, whereof we haue some store in Chatleie Moore in Darbishire, Shropshire, Andernesse, and a mosse neere Manchester, not far from Leircesters house; although that in time past not onelie all Lancastershire, but a great part of the coast betweene Chester and the Solme were well stored." According to the Rev. Abraham de la Pryme[4] there was a wood of wild pine ona hill at Wareton in Staffordshire in his day, the beginning of the eighteenth century; and, in an old deed, fir trees were mentioned as growing scattered in Hatfield Chase in Yorkshire about the year 1400, the last surviving aboriginal pine here being cut down about 1670. The Wareton pines were described by Ray in a note[5] dated Oct. 14, 1669: 'We rode to see the famous fir-trees, some 2½ miles distant from Newport, in a village called Wareton in Shropshire,[6] on the land of Mr. Skrimshaw. There are of them thirty-five in number, very tall and straight, without a bough till towards the top. The greatest, and which seems to be the mother of the rest, we found by measure to be 14½ feet round the body, and they say 56 yards high, which to me seemed incredible. The tenant's name of the house close by these fir-trees is Firchild, whose ancestors have been tenants to it for many generations." These trees, according to Dr. Higgins[5] of Newport, are mentioned in an old book, Historia Vegetablium Sacra, published in 1694 by Westmacott, who says there were thirty-six of them, one of them being 47½ yards high. Withering,[7] writing in 1776, states that the trees at Wareton were no longer existing in his time. Pine forests apparently occurred in Roman times in the north of England, and remnants of these may have existed down till a recent period, concerning which the late Professor Newton told me of some very old Scots pines that used to grow about forty-five years ago on Wretham Heath, Norfolk, which local tradition said had never been planted, but grew there wild. They were always spoken of as the '" Deal[8] Trees," all other trees of this species that were planted being named Scotch firs. Whether there is any real foundation for this tradition is very hard to say, but it is possible that the seed
- ↑ Cf. Clement Reid, Origin British Flora, pp. 16, 152 (1899):—"Remains of this tree are found in Neolithic deposits, in 'submerged forests' and at the base of peat-mosses, nearly throughout Britain and in Ireland. In late Glacial times at Bovey Tracey, Devon, and at Hoxne, Suffolk (in bed C?). Abundantly in the preglacial strata of Norfolk, but not in any of the interglacial deposits in Britain. During the Neolithic period it seems to have been one of our commonest trees; but afterwards disappeared from the southern half of England."
- ↑ The orchid, Goodyera repens, which was formerly supposed to grow only in wild coniferous forests, as in the Highlands of Scotland, has begun to appear, of late years, in various localities, where the Scots Pine has been planted, both in England and in France; and the problem as to how the seeds of the orchid reach these plantations is still unsolved. Cf. Kew Bulletin, 1906, p. 293; Actes Premier Congrès Internat. Bot. Paris, 382 (1900); and Fliche, in Mém. Acad. Stanislas, 1878.
- ↑ Holinshed's Chronicles, i. 358 (1807), reprint of the edition published in 1586.
- ↑ Phil. Trans. No. 275, p. 980 (1701).
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Derham, Memorials of John Ray, 25 (1846).
- ↑ Wareton, now usually written Warton, is in Staffordshire, not far from the Shropshire boundary.
- ↑ Botany, ii, 593 (1776).
- ↑ According to Britten and Holland, Dict. Eng. Plant-Names, 146 (1886), deal-tree is used for Pinus sylvestris in East Anglia and Northamptonshire, the cone being commonly called deal-apple.
