324 PLANT LIFE. 



The author would suggest for Dumfriesshire, and the 

 year 1893, 1500 feet as the upper limit of the Pine, 

 800 feet for the Oak, and possibly 200 to 300 feet 

 for Beech and its allies. 



Of this original flora it is difficult to form any idea. 

 The heather moors have been altogether changed by 

 annual burning, and by black-faced sheep. Even the 

 Alpine flora has been altered by the ravages of pseudo- 

 botanists and experimentalists, who have attempted to 

 introduce plants. With the first settlement of man, 

 accompanied by cattle and goats, would begin the 

 destruction of the forests. Patches may have been 

 burnt down ; but in any case, the continual grazing of 

 cattle and cutting of firewood would change the oak- 

 forest into a sort of scrub or woodland, such as may 

 occasionally be found in various parts of the country, in 

 places where cattle are allowed to enter woods. The 

 trees in such scrublands are badly developed, small, 

 twisted, and gnarled. Between them grass begins to 

 grow, whilst the ferns and other forest undergrowths are 

 greatly mutilated. This would become the general 

 appearance of the country in the immediate vicinity of 

 the first human settlements. These were probably 

 chiefly along the coast and on navigable rivers and 

 lakes. As time went on the demand for firewood, the 

 increase of the live stock, and the need for additional 

 grazing lands, which led to the destruction of the 

 woods by fire, extended from these centres of settlement 

 over a large proportion of the country. The condition 

 of the Britons at the time of Caesar's invasion clearly 

 shows that the country was partly cleared of trees, 

 and partly covered with dense and inaccessible forests, 

 in which the inhabitants took refuge when pressed by 

 invaders. That the country was fairly open and free 



