Introduction 7 



varying features of the conflict afford the most interesting ecological 

 outlook. In a civilized country, where vegetation wages an unequal conflict 

 with both the environment and the aggression of human interference, he 

 must be content to deal with these combined effects, as, in their way, equally 

 likely to result in changes and possibly striking new departures in the plant- 

 story. The consideration of the admittedly deteriorated flora of the Oxford 

 district may thus serve as an introduction to the study of a more natural 

 area with dominant types of vegetation. There is no need either to attempt 

 to glorify it as being particularly unique, or to deprecate it as valueless. 

 The point is to present it in its exact relation, as a training-ground in field- 

 work for members of the Oxford Schools of Forestry and Botany, who may 

 be called on to deal with wider problems of plant-life in any part of the 

 world. 



II. PHYSICAL FEATURES 



Before dealing with the general physical factors of the environment 

 it is necessary to explain how it is that the Oxford district becomes 

 available for present investigation, and the part played by man in the 

 establishment of what is termed civilization from the original wild ; Oxford 

 being now a large urban centre, as well as a University, to which the local 

 flora appears at first sight as a mere trivial appendage, of aesthetic rather 

 than of essential biological significance. 



Oxford, 1 a town of some 60,000 inhabitants, which has given its name 

 to the University and also to the county of Oxfordshire, is situated on the 

 Upper Thames (Isis), in longitude i 16' W. of Greenwich, and latitude 

 51 49' N. The name suggestively indicates that the University and City 

 have grown up in the vicinity of a ford practicable for cattle over the 

 Thames (at Folly Bridge), marking the course of an old route running 

 North and South to meet the river road to Abingdon, and this is com- 

 memorated in the City arms. The centre of the town is still indicated by 

 a Four Cross (Carfax), as the former main road cut another track running 

 approximately E. and W., crossing the Cherwell by a ford near the 

 Botanic Gardens (Magdalen Bridge), and extending now to cross the 

 Thame at Sworford (E.), and the Isis at Swinford (W.). The fords were 

 ultimately replaced by bridges 2 still essential to the roads, but their original 

 usage implies the necessity for inter-communication in a district intersected 

 by several streams, for which the present town marked a convenient centre. 

 The ford-names still persisting may commemorate the ancient Saxon 

 practice of taking stock to market ; that is to say, the roads were tracks 

 for herding cattle locally, while communication with the outside world was 

 long maintained by the river. The fords were important as representing 

 shallow stretches of gravel bottom, with a gravel approach affording secure 

 foothold, in a clay district. A market at the best ford naturally followed. 



Place-names of adjacent villages indicate that the early settlements and 

 routes belong to Saxon times. The older Roman road from Bicester and 

 Alchester to Dorchester, still remaining in part, avoided the low- lying flood- 

 areas as much as possible, and once across Otmoor, passed i\ miles to the 



1 The word is first written Oksnaforda in the time of King Alfred, but may be merely a corrup- 

 tion of an older pre-Celtic place-name ; cf. local names as Oxey Mead and the River Ock at Abingdon. 



2 The first bridge over the Thames (Grandpont), at Folly Bridge, was built by Robert d'Oili, 

 the first Norman military governor ; that over the Cherwell at Magdalen Bridge being Pettypont. 

 The Grandpont was probably a drawbridge, and may have been associated with a causeway. 



