THE INFLUENCE OF MAN. 323 



Thus it may be gathered that the Rivei'-drift man 

 may have influenced the British Flora, and that the 

 Neolithic peoples certainly must have done so, as they 

 seem to have cultivated corn and grazed cattle, and 

 especially goats, in the forests. 



The general succession of the Flora has been already 

 traced in a previous chapter. It is assumed that, at 

 the time of the Neolithic settler's arrival, the country 

 was roughly occupied as follows : 



Beech and Oak covered the majority of the best low- 

 lands in England. The flat alluvial meadows by the 

 rivers were for the most part a fenland, with dense 

 swamps of Phragmites and other Reeds. Northern Eng- 

 land, Scotland south of the Grampians, and the best 

 Highland valleys and seashores supported Oak forests, 

 probably of very fair growth and size. Wherever the 

 land was not of the richest quality, or where it was at 

 too great an altitude to support Oak scrub, there were 

 forests of Pinus silvestris, or thickets of Rosaceous or 

 Leguminous shrubs. 



Peat-mosses were found, as they are to-day, at all 

 altitudes, and interrupted the other vegetations. Between 

 the Pine forests and the Alpine plants great stretches 

 of heather extended, much wilder and taller than 

 anything now to be found. In the extreme South 

 of England, within the scanty patches of country from 

 Cornwall to the Isle of Wight, which obtains over 

 1600 hours of sunshine annually, there were probably 

 pickets of the Mediterranean flora, of which remnants still 

 hold their ground. 



The altitudes limiting the Beech, Oak, and Pine 

 forests cannot be given definitely. Mr. Smith gives 

 (1900) the present range of the Pine 1800 feet, Oak 

 1000 feet, and Beech 900 feet for North Perthshire, 



