1 64 Gleanings from the 



native home. Martial calls them "Numidian 

 fpotted fowls," which exactly describes their beauti- 

 ful plumage. Varro, writing fome thirty years B.C., 

 fays that they were the moft recent addition to the 

 glutton's menu. Geefe and ducks would naturallybe 

 domefticated by the Britons, as foon as they fettled 

 down into an agricultural life, from the wild 

 fpecies, but improved varieties were brought over 

 by the Romans. The turtle-dove, a native of 

 India, is faid to be another introduction. The 

 jungle-cock of the Indian forefts had already made 

 its appearance together with the neolithic man in 

 Britain. The ufe of the falcon, too, in fowling 

 has with fome probability, feeing how popular is 

 falconry in Perfia and the Eaft, been afcribed to the 

 Romans, from whom our anceftors would learn it, 

 and then excel their teachers with native birds. 



The trees and vegetables which have been 

 introduced from the Miftrefs of the World open 

 a much larger queftion. When the curtain rifes 

 upon our ifland and hiftory begins, Casfar obferves 

 upon its vegetation : " Mater ia cujufque generis, 

 ut in Gallia eft, praeter fagum atque abietem" 

 ("Bello Gallico," v. 12). The meaning of this is 

 uncertain, and has been the fubject of much com- 

 ment. We take it to mean that, befides the 

 ordinary trees of France, there grew beech and 

 Scotch fir as well in Britain. Geologically con- 

 nected as our ifland had been with Holland and 

 the neighbouring countries, it is inconceivable 

 that the beech mould not have been an indigenous 

 tree, as it certainly is at prefent in Bucks, con- 



