100 



Plant-life of the Oxford District 



(as individuals are incapable of propagation without assistance) when the 

 connexion with Roman Gaul and Spain was broken at the English conquest. 



Early English seeking land capable of growing corn, brought seed-corn 

 from N. Germany, with associated weeds, as also fodder and hay of some sort 

 with their cattle, with the probability of introducing any weeds of North Europe 

 not previously imported from the South. As the forests were progressively 

 cleared, the more useful trees as Willows and Poplars were increasingly 

 planted, since these grow freely by the sides of streams and ditches from large 

 sets and even poles, with no necessary knowledge of seedlings. Hazel-coppice, 

 as longest surviving underwood, remained invaluable for nuts and wattle, and 

 Oak as the longest-living standard tree became the timber of building-construc- 

 tions ; the oak-wood also valuable for acorns feeding hogs. Intercourse with 

 Rome was resumed by the agency of the Church ; the economic plants of 

 S. Europe being continually re-inlroduced by patriotic pilgrims, and distributed 

 from monastery gardens ; as were also decorative or attractive and scented 

 flowers (cf. Hollyhock, Myrtle, Laurel (Laurus nobilis), Lavender, Rosemary 

 An&Jasininum officinale), together with medicinal plants (as Arislolochia Clematitis 

 surviving at Godstow Nunnery). Records of cultivation, somewhere in Britain, 

 have little bearing on strictly local conditions ; and many such plants may have 

 been introduced independently at different times, and allowed to die out, as 

 in the manner of present times, when the novelty is worn off. Vines have been 

 grown in vineyards, but have been replaced by apple-orchards. Figs were 

 always attractive, as also Mulberries, and old plants are still growing at Oxford 

 as attempts at introduction. 1 



Definite record in Botanical Literature begins with Turner, 2 and more 

 particularly Gerard 3 for the London District (1596). The latter shows a general 

 knowledge of the plants of Europe in cultivation, and also several from North 

 America (cf. Helianthus animus) ; an attempt at the acclimatization of every- 

 thing that could be grown in the open being made, as the expression of a 

 growing scientific interest in new plants for their own sakes, rather than for 

 their ' vertues '. The general dated list for introductions from this time onward 

 is found in Aiton (1814),' though plants marked 1548 may have been cultivated 

 for an indefinite period. 



Special interest centres in the few vigorous types which have succeeded 

 in making more recent impression on the local flora, and may be so far 

 regarded as invasive : 



Elodca canadensis (N. America, 1842), in ditches, streams and river: 



Crepis taraxacifolia (S. Europe), of grass-fields, spreading to waste places and 



good ground : 

 Veronica Tourneforlii (SE. Europe, 1829), of arable fields, extending to roadsides 



and gardens : 



Scnecio squalidus (Medit. Region), in all waste ground, allotments and walls : 

 Geranium pyrtnaiaim (SW. Europe, 1762), in hedgerows and fields near houses: 

 Symphoricarpus racemosus (N. America, 1818), planted in hedges, and long- 

 enduring : 



as also the various trees in forest-cultivation, and the common and more 

 conspicuous shrubs of gardens, parks, and hedgerows, as planted at some 

 time, and now maintained as assisted associates of man, whether for economic 

 or aesthetic purposes. Many such forms are now common objects of the 

 district, as familiar as most of the forms of the indigenous flora, if not more 

 so, and every one is expected to know something of them. 



1 Cf. The ' Pocock Fig', Christ Church, 1636 : Gunther, Oxford Gardens, 1912, p. 207 : The 

 Wild Fig (Ficus Carica) was germinated as a curiosity 'rom Smyrna figs in the Hotanic Garden, and 

 bore its first crop of ' 1'rofichi ', 1910. The Merton College Mulberry (Mortis nrgm) may date from 

 1605. 



1 Turner (1551), Herball ; 1st edit. 1548. 



3 Gerard (1597), Herball; catalogue of the garden, 1596. 



* Aiton (1814), Epitome of the Second Edition of the Horlm Kewensis (Linnaean System). 



