45 



« until this day." We may smile at a part of this statement, but 

 what Gerard had seen himself is a direct proof of the matter m 

 question ; and there are other statements that bear evidence the 

 same way. Merrett, in his "Pinax Eerum Naturahum 

 Britannicarum," published in 1666 * under the head of ^6^.5,_the 

 Fir tree, writes-" in Alpibus Scoticis, et quondam m planmis 

 An<^li* locis Borealibus."-Kay, in his "Synopsis Stirpmm 

 BriLnnicarum," first published in 1696, nearly repeats the same ■ 

 words Wordsworth, the poet, in a private letter, gave it as his 

 opinion that the "Westmoreland mountains were formerly 

 .'covered in some places to their very summits by pmes (the 

 « Hi-hland Pine)." He speaks of many that had survived, and 

 were° living when he was a boy. t Selby, in his « British Forest 

 Trees," considers that formerly the Scotch Fir "occupied most 

 «'of the elevated tracts of the kingdom, though the natural 

 « forests now remaining are confined to the mountainous districts 

 » of Scotland.-: Hooker, in his " Student's Flora of the British 

 Islands "§ says of the Pinus sylvestris, "Highlands, ascends to 

 2,200 feet, rare in a native state ; formerly native over many parts 



of Britain." . -n i j 



Comin- down now to the southern counties of England, we 

 have important testimony in two local Floras of comparatively 

 recent date, " Mansel-Pleydell's Flora of Dorset," published lu 

 1874 and Townsend's" Flora of Hampshire," published in 1883. 

 It is'on the confines of these two counties that Bournemouth is 

 situated, and in consequence each author has something to say on 

 the subject of the fir trees. 



Mansel-Pleydell speaks of the Scotch Fir as common on heathy 

 places, but considers it a doubtful native of Dorset. Neverthe- 

 less he states it is to be found in all the four adjacent counties of 

 Devon, Hants, Somerset and Wilts.y ^^___ 



* P. 1. t ^otes and Queries, vol. 3 (2nd Ser.), p. 445. X P. 399. 

 § 2nd Ed., 1878, p. 368. II Flora of Dorsetshire, p. 232. 



