324 A SKETCH OF THE BOTANY OF 



high, and measured in circumference 8 feet 6 inches ; the other 

 on the lawn behind the house, was between 60 and 70 feet high, 

 and measured 12 feet 3 inches. Two species of lime* are to be 

 found in the " walkes and places of pleasure of noble men," and 

 more rarely in plantations, which, to judge from their size and 

 appearance, must have seen a century at least sweep over them. 

 The lime is rare in the eastern division of the county, but com- 

 mon in the west. The chestnut and horse-chestnutrecommend- 

 ed by its " most glorious flower," the hornbeam, the gean, the 

 smooth-leaved elm, the Scotch fir, the larch, the silver, Wey- 

 mouth, and spruce firs, the Balsam poplar, the Bedford willow f, 

 and a few others of rare occurrence, are all of comparatively re- 

 cent introduction. The walnut, introduced into Scotland about 

 1684, is seldom seen in Berwickshire ; while the laburnum, with 

 its golden chain, is a common ornament of our hedges. It was 

 first planted in the end of the 17th century, and Dr WALKER 

 mentions a tree of it which was cut at Greenlaw in the year 1763, 

 and measured in circumference 4 feet 6 inches. 



That the changes in the extent and state of our woods and agri- 

 culture which I have endeavoured thus to trace, have been ac- 

 companied with considerable changes in the distribution and com- 

 parative frequency of our wild herbaceous plants, will admit of 

 no reasonable doubts. When the lakes were filled up, the aqua- 

 tic plants must of necessity have disappeared ; and the result of 

 the draining of marshes must have been similar on the plants pe- 

 culiar to them. Many a flower, nursed up in their shelter, assu- 

 redly died away when the woods had fallen ; and golden harvests 

 have displaced from the meadows the spontaneous and barren 

 covering of nature. To compensate this loss, which I would not 

 wish to overrate, a greater number of plants have perhaps been 

 naturalized. The introduction of some of these was probably co- 

 eval with the first peopling of the island, or at least as early as 

 the knowledge of agriculture ; for, to use the words of SOUTHEY, 

 " there are weeds which never show themselves in the wilder- 



'uropcea et grandifolia of the English Flora. 



