850 



invasion of these islands. I have elsewhere in this paper re- 

 marked on the absurdity of pinning one's faith to any ancient text, 

 with all its liability to corruption or misconstruction from time and 

 the ignorance or carelessness of transcribers, before printing gave 

 thought power to fly about the world on a hundred wings in unim- 

 paired originality of expression as of conception. I suppose a bota- 

 nist could scarcely be found at the present day hardy enough to risk 

 being laughed at for quoting Caesar's ' Commentaries ' to prove that 

 the beech was no true Briton : the prestige of classical authority, 

 like the Aristotelian philosophy once and so long paramount in the 

 schools, has vanished before the practical and inquiring spirit of our 

 age, and we learn to know Nature by her own teachings, not from the 

 dicta of her disciples or the wording of a musty record. Yet I con- 

 fess, the objections that have been taken against admitting the nati- 

 vity of several British plants whose claims have been discussed in 

 these Notes, appear to myself not a whit more reasonable than in the 

 case we have been just considering, since we have here the sanction 

 at least of a great name of antiquity, be its authority in botanical 

 matters what it may ; in the other instances we have little but bare 

 conjecture or unproved assertion as the foundation of doubt. I have 

 often, like Mr. Watson, felt desirous to ascertain the real or natural 

 limits of the beech in Britain, which we may hope to see accom- 

 plished through careful observations by northern botanists. On the 

 continent of Europe this tree ranges to a latitude as high as the ex- 

 tremest north of Scotland, but there can be no doubt it fails in Bri- 

 tain several degrees lower than in Sweden, the southern part of which 

 country is quite within the true beech region, which occupies the 

 greater part of central and western Europe, in the plains or at mode- 

 rate elevations. It is rare or wanting in the extreme eastern countries 

 of the continent, as Poland and Russia, being comparatively a tender 

 tree, and according to Fischer (Versuch einer Naturgeschichte von 

 Li viand, 2te Auflage, s. 631) apt to suffer from the cold of winter at 

 Riga, lat. 56° 57', when not sheltered by its neighbours of a hardier 

 kind. 



fCastanea vesca. In woods and hedges; not uncommon in the 

 Isle of Wight and county generally ; perhaps really naturalized in 

 the strictest sense by spontaneous dissemination in many places, but 

 rarely ; more frequently planted, and certainly, I conceive, very 

 doubtfully indigenous to any part of this realm. In Lorden Copse, 

 near Shorwell, are several trees of considerable girth and evidently 

 great age, which in certain seasons produce small but well-flavoured 



