130 PLANTS AND ANIMALS. [CHAP. 
change in the characteristic trees of a country cannot 
be effected without producing an effect as great upon 
other vegetation and also upon the fauna of the 
locality. 
What a change must have been effected in our 
native flora and fauna by the invention of gun- 
powder! Previously the country owed its victories 
of war to the bowmen, and they owed their excellence 
largely to the yew-staves of which their bows were 
made, and to which the victories of Cressy, Poictiers, 
and Agincourt were mainly attributed. But with the 
invention of gunpowder and the adoption of firearms 
in the army the Yew ceased to be cultivated; the 
plantations which had been previously devoted to it 
were filled with more profitable trees, and to-day it 
is so scarce that the wood for the fancy bows of 
modern archers is imported from the United States. 
Previously immense areas of ground must have been 
planted with the Yew, and the effect of abandoning 
its cultivation must have been great, especially as it 
was probably accompanied by an increased cultiva- - 
tion of the Alder (Alnus glutinosa), for its wood fur- 
nishes one of the best kinds of charcoal used in the 
manufacture of gunpowder, and in the neighbourhood 
of gunpowder factories large plantations of Alder are 
often to be seen. 
It is by such circumstances as these that the whole 
aspect of our country has been changed, and the flora 
and fauna considerably modified. Think what a revo- 
lution of Nature must have been effected by the 
cultivation of corn! Tracts of virgin forest and moor- 
land were ploughed and dug, and the characteristic 
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