314 A SKETCH OF THE BOTANY OF 



No. VII. 



A SKETCH OF THE BOTANY OF NORTH DURHAM 

 AND BERWICKSHIRE, FROM THE EARLIEST 

 PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME. 



THE earliest accounts of North Britain represent it as every- 

 where covered with marshes and with extensive forests, in which 

 the inhabitants fed their numerous herds, and cultivated some 

 corn in the clear intervals. When applied, however, to any par- 

 ticular district, this general description is found too vague to be 

 satisfactory ; and as history does not afford the necessary details 

 to fill up the outline, we must seek them in the relics of former 

 centuries, or in the less certain investigations of the antiquary 

 and philologist. 



North Durham and the eastern parts of Berwickshire lie great- 

 ly exposed to cold winds from the north and east, which prevail 

 much, and are so prejudicial to the growth of trees, that the dis- 

 trict is nearly destitute of them. In the deep ravines which 

 break the rugged outline of the coast of Berwickshire, there is 

 indeed very often more or less brush-wood, and sometimes a 

 group of trees of considerable size, but these never rise above the 

 shelter afforded by the precipitous banks. The district, in this 

 respect, has been probably much the same in all ages, for its phy- 

 sical features have remained immutable, and of the elements 

 61 that which hath been is now." This conclusion is rendered al- 

 most certain by other considerations. In the name of Berwick 

 we may perhaps trace an evidence of the barrenness of its vicinity ; 

 and it is conjectured that the Merse has received its name from 

 the pristine nakedness of the lower parts of the county. " In the 

 parishes of Hutton, Whitsome, Ladykirk, Swinton, Coldstream, 

 and Eccles, we do not trace, on the maps, any name of a place 

 which derived its designation from a wood," says the laborious 

 author of Caledonia. 



On the contrary, the north-east and western parts of Berwick, 

 shire were extensively wooded. The names of villages in which 



