43 



There are other trees under conditions very different from those 

 of the trees last mentioned ; trees on the edge of the cliff, exposed 

 to the full force of winter storms, dwarfed, bent and distorted in 

 various ways ; others, below the cliffs, struggling, as it were, for 

 life amid the shelving sand heaps threatening, to all appearance, to 

 drag them gradually down into the sea. 



I have entered into the above details, as affording strong 

 ground, in my opinion, for believing that the Bournemouth 

 firs are true natives of that part of the country, — in 

 opposition to those who assert that the Scotch fir, though 

 indigenous in Scotland is not indigenous in England. Let us 

 now go into this argument which dates back to the well known 

 statement in Caesar's Commentaries that there was the same 

 timber in Britain as in Gaul, except the fir and the beech — 

 " praeter fagum atque abietem." This remark of Caesar's, however, 

 is of little worth. First, he could have seen scarce anything 

 of Britain except Kent and the Thames district;* secondly, in 

 addition to the fir, he mentions the beech as not found in Britain, 

 where he is certainly wrong, as witnessed by Windsor, Epping, 

 Savernake, and many other native woods and forests ; thirdly, 

 firwood is recorded " to have b«en found under the foundation of 

 some Eoman roads."t In truth, firwood is abundant in many of 

 the ancient mosses in England, and old roots of the Scotch Fir are 

 found in the bogs of Ireland. :|: In an Article on the Coniferce ia 

 the Edinhirgh Review it is stated that " remains of the Scotch Fir 

 " are plentifully distributed in the northern peat bogs ; and that 

 " the tree appears to have covered large districts, and to have 

 " flourished continuously on the same spot for long periods of 

 " time .... It has maintained its place, not by the long 



* "Caesar's account (of Britain) is necessarily confined to Kent, the 

 district known to him." ScxHKs Boman Britain, p. 5. 



t N'otes and Queries, vol. i. (Sixth Ser.), p. 78. 

 X Withering, British Plants, and other Authors. 



