22 HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. PART I. 
Saxon is bece; béche, Fr.; and buche, Ger. The Scotch pine, 
Whitaker thinks, was a native of the island before the arrival of 
the Romans, though unknown to them at their invasion ; and this 
pine, judging from the resinous quality of that dug up from peat 
bogs, he considers to have been of a different species from that 
now grown in England, and “the same assuredly with the 
Scotch fir of the highlands of Scotland.” Here we know the 
author to be entirely mistaken ; the species being every where the 
same, and the quality of the timber differing only in consequence 
of differences in the soil and situation. Sir Walter Scott fell 
into a similar error, when he stated, in the Quarterly Review 
(xxxvi. 580.), that our “ Scotch fir was brought from Canada, not 
more than half a century ago,” and that the true species, found 
in the north of Scotland in immense forests, grows with ‘huge 
contorted arms, not altogether unlike the oak.” ‘The conjec- 
tures of these two eminent writers only show that, however 
great may be their authority in other matters, they are not to be 
depended upon in what concerns trees. The Scotch pine must, 
unquestionably, have been indigenous in the highlands of Scot- 
land in the time of Czesar, though, in all probability, not to be 
met with, or rare, in England, at least in the southern counties. 
The Romans, Whitaker observes, first brought among us, 
as their present names sufficiently show, ‘the platanus or plane, 
the tilia or teil, the buxus or box, the ulmus or elm, and the 
populus or poplar. The platanus passed from Asia to Sicily, 
thence into Italy; and, before the year 79, as Pliny informs us, 
it had reached the most northerly shore of Gaul. The apple 
Whitaker conjectures to have been brought into Britain by the 
first colonies of the natives, and by the Hzdui of Somersetshire 
in particular; hence Glastonbury was distinguished by the title 
of Avellonia, or the apple orchard, previously to the arrival of 
the Romans. Before the third century, this fruit had spread 
over the whole island, and so widely, that, according to Solinus, 
there were large plantations of it in the “ Ultima Thule.” The 
Romans added “the pear, the damson, and the cherry, the 
arbor persica, perch, or peach; aprica, or apricot ; and cydonia, 
or quince.” Cherries were introduced from Pontus and Egypt 
into Italy by Lucullus, who conquered the former country ; and 
they were carried into Britain within five years of the first set- 
tlement of the Romans in the country. Pears abounded in 
Italy, though it is uncertain at what time the Romans brought 
them into England. The damson was originally brought from 
Damascus to Italy, and thence to Britain, as the quince was from 
Crete, and the peach from Persia: the latter was common in 
Gaul in the time of Agricola. 
The mulberry, the chestnut, the fig, and the sorbus, or true 
service, were introduced by the Romans. It is singular, that, 
not far from one of the very few habitats in which the true 
