1885.] 



SOUTHAMPTON COMMON. 



563 



and herds, growicg corn, flax, and other crops must have affected the 

 flora of Essex. So, too, did the tall llemish race of the bronze 

 age, who made both linen and woollen cloth, living in villages and 

 using iron for ornaments. The Celts who succeeded them grew 

 wheat, millet, fruits, and bred some domestic animals. They made 

 their celebrated willow baskets, manufactured cloth, dyeing it black 

 with the bark of the alder, and flesh-coloured with that of the 

 willow. If they sought to add to the terrific aspect of their bodies, 

 tattooed with woad, it was by dyeing their hair and moustaches of a 

 red colour with a mixture of goat's fat and the ashes of beech-wood, 

 probably indicating the indigenous character of the beech. We 

 need only indicate how the sacred mistletoe, the sacred oak, and the 

 surrounding groves of the equally sacred apple tree were bound up 

 with the Druidical nature-worship. Nor should we be olilivious of 

 the immense indirect effect on the forestal condition of the country 

 by five centuries of Eoman military rule. Besides, we probably 

 owe to these imperial conquerors the introduction of the chestnut, 

 the sycamore, the box, and the laurel, together with the walnut, 

 pear, medlar, quince, damson, peach, cherry, mulberry, fig, and vine, 

 though some attribute several of these to the early missionaries. 

 Thus the stream of history afterwards proved in part a diffusion or 

 dispersion of plants. 



SOUTHAMPTON COMMON. 



THIS forms a fitting tail-piece to the preceding articles ; for in 

 this noble park of 365 acres, unsurpassed by any similar 

 town land in England, the jaded inhabitants of Southampton may 

 study many varieties of forest beauty, from the yellow gorse of early 

 summer to the purple heather of autumn. Only a few elms of the 

 once magnificent avenue have resisted the ravages of the boring beetle. 



