46 



Townsend, though he too calls the Scotch Fir "a doubtful 

 native," speaks of it as "common on the heaths around Bourne- 

 mouth," and shortly afterwards says "there are abundant evidences 

 that the pine formerly grew wild throughout the county." 

 In another place he says — " it seems to me possible that living 

 pine trees in some parts of the county may be descendants from 

 the wild plant. "+ 



Such is the testimony afforded by botanists, in favour of the 

 Scotch Fir being indigenous in England as well as Scotland. Other 

 testimony is afforded to the same effect by local names. Taylor, 

 in his " Words and Places," thinking to confirm Caesar's statement 

 above alluded to, ventured the assertion that — "In no single 

 instance throughout the Anglo-Saxon charters do we meet with a 

 name implying the existence of any kind of pine or fir, a circum- 

 stance which curiously corroborates the assertion of Caesar, that 

 there was no fir found in Britain. "| I have the high authority 

 of Mr. Earle, the Professor of Anglo-Saxon, for saying that here 

 " Taylor is wrong ; " and Mr. Earle has kindly looked out for me 

 several names of places all of which he considers as undoubtedly 

 derived from the fir : such are Firhank in Westmoreland, — Fur- 

 lecke (or Firbeck) in West Riding, and Firbie (or Firby) and 

 Furgarth in East Eiding, Yorkshire, — Furbie (or Firby or Firsby) 

 in Lincolnshire, — Furcombe, in the parish of Farnborough, Berks, 

 — Furle (or Furleigh) in Sussex, Pevensy Rape. 



In addition to the above local names, I mentioned to Mr. Earle 

 two others in the south of England, — Furland, a tithing of Crew- 

 kerne in Somerset, and Furland Hill, one of a range of hills between 

 Brixham and Dartmouth : both of which he had no doubt, were 

 also named after the fir tree. 



But I come now to a still more important fact, in especial con- 

 nection with the fir trees at Bournemouth. It is the circumstance 



* Flora of Hampshire, pp. 321-2. 

 + Words and Places, Ed. vi., p. 249- 



