of our District during Historic Times. 283 



numbers of swine, second only to Croydon, with its Norwood of 

 5000 acres. 



There is a similar looking series of parishes between Lewes 

 and Keymer, in Sussex, but I do not know if their history is 

 the same. 



After Domesday we have but few records which give us much 

 information. There are some which show that the head of the 

 Waudle was formerly much higher than at present, the old town 

 being intersected by a series of streams sufficient to furnish 

 power to one or two mills. It would also appear that the Bourne 

 of Caterham Valley was more frequent, and yielded more water 

 than at present (if it is ever going to flow again). 



I can find no direct evidence in our flora that the land was 

 very much wetter, although it seems reasonable to suppose that 

 the little Spha[/mim bog on the Addington Hills is the last relic 

 of a much more extensive one. There are some records of water 

 plants on the chalk— at Ooulsdon, for instance— which are not 

 now found. I regard these as either referring to localities some 

 distance away, such as Merstham, or isolated localities round 

 ponds. There were formerly many more ponds than now, and it 

 frequently happens that water plants are carried from one pond 

 to another on the feet and feathers of aquatic birds. 



There are many trees that now form an important element in 

 our landscape that have been introduced by man. Fruit trees 

 and shrubs, such as wild cherry, wild pear, currants, and goose- 

 berries, are very old-estabHshed colonists, coming in probably 

 in prehistoric times with their cultivators from Asia. The elm 

 came with the Komans, the lime, sycamore, poplar, Scotch fir, 

 larch, Spanish and horse-chestnut, some of which are important 

 in our landscape, during historic times. 



Corn-field weeds, though undoubtedly alien, are most likely as 

 old as the corn they infest. Poppy, charlock, and mustard are 

 conspicuous in our fields ; the soil seems full of their seeds, and 

 they can be of no recent introduction. The same applies to our 

 long list of arable weeds. Beyond these there are scarcely any 

 alien plants in our district of any importance. 



With regard to the extinction of native plants by man, we have 

 again no evidence to go on. It is probable that the orchids of 

 our chalk-hills, now so rare, were more widely spread before the 

 slopes were cultivated. There are two plants which have become 

 extinct, or nearly so, in recent years in curious fashions. One is 

 the common male fern, which was formerly in almost every wood, 

 now scarcely to be found near London, tlie other the curious 

 jilant butcher's broom, Fmscus aculeatus. This was not un- 

 common on clay soils, but has been exterminated within a wide 

 radius of London owing to it being used by tobacco manufacturers 

 to dampen tobacco, the spines at the ends of the leaves (which 



