98 Plant-life of the Oxford District 



man was solely dependent on the natural products of the district ; and life is 

 not possible in such a North Temperate climate without the essentials of fire 

 and a knife. A fire can be built of twigs and branches snapped by hand, but 

 wattle-huts and basket-work required knives in the form of flaked flints from 

 the Chalk. With these it was possible to cut willows for wattle and basket-work, 

 as well as staves and weapon-handles. The two-edged flint-scraper is the 

 homologue of the safety-razor blade of to-day, thrown away when the edge was 

 gone. Such flaked flints, generally distributed in the Wolvercote Brick-earth, 

 probably indicate an encampment with woodwork done on the spot. The 

 Willow was the first associate of man, and to Palaeolithic man was undoubtedly 

 the essential tree, only replaced in later times by the Oak, following the evolution 

 of the iron axe. 



Hazel-nuts and Blackberries in their season are the only natural food- 

 products of the district ; and thus Rubus, Corylus, and SaKx become the first 

 human associates, to an extent that suggests that some at least of the numerous 

 forms of native Willow are ' alien ', and that the great variety of * indigenous ' 

 'species' of Willow owes its origin to the introduction of new types with advancing 

 waves of human immigration. 1 



To Neolithic man, still unable to cut up a big tree, other than by splitting 

 it with flint wedges though log-canoes can be dug out by fire, or a tree 

 carefully felled by fire (as by the Maoris in 6 weeks) 2 the Willow remained 

 the all-important tree for wattle and basket-work, passing on to the coppice- 

 shoots of the Hazel. Sparganium 3 ramosum of the swamp-area, gave the first 



1 The story of the poet Pope raising the first English Weeping Willow from a basket brought 

 from Spain is possibly apocryphal ; but any old crate of green withy stranded on a mud-bank will 

 shoot and may take root. The first British Willows were the minute S. polaris and S. herbacea of 

 cold climate, probably followed by the earliest Spring-flowering forms, S. caprea, with associated 

 S. cinerea, and the bush S. aurita. The later May-flowering S. alba, S. fragilis, S. triandra, 

 S. pHrpurea, as well as the economic S. viminalis (Osier) are naturalized aliens of long standing. 

 It is interesting to note S. triandra flowering in August on the leafy shoots of the current year. 



Such mingled forms may conceivably occasionally intercross and set seed ; but the seedling 

 history is still largely unknown. Cf. the valuable ' Cricket Bat Willow ', S. coerulea, only grown as 

 a carpellary plant. Elwes and Henry (1913), p. 1763. 



It is also interesting to recall the thousands of years during which the Blackberry has been 

 dispersed by human agency over a small district, far more effectively than by the birds for whom the 

 fruits were originally intended ; again indefinitely assisting the propagation of mutants and possible 

 hybrids of the many hypothetical ' species' of the modern batidologist. 



2 The Maoris of New Zealand, persisting to recent times as a race of Neolithic civilization with 

 no wild or domesticated cattle, and with no knowledge of any metal, yet physically and intellectually 

 as capable as an ordinary Englishman, affords a clear idea of the possibilities of Neolithic man in 

 prehistoric times. The Maori utilized every natural product of the country to the utmost. A great 

 Totara tree, felled by fire, would give a canoe to the maximum length of 120 ft., and with such 

 vessels they successfully navigated the Pacific for 5,000 miles, and made land-fall without a compass. 



There is little need to postulate land-connexion of Great Britain with the continent : the land 

 was practically covered with forest ; sea, and the river leading from the sea, formed the natural highway. 

 The river was the general means of getting about locally until the time of the Normans. A camp on 

 the Third Terrace at Wolvercote, or on Wytham Hill, would have had the same value as mi^ht the 

 Castle Mound in the time of the Danes. A dug-out canoe, found under peat at Brigg (Lincolnshire, 

 1884), was made from a log of Oak, 48^ ft. long and 6ft. diameter, without the use of any metal; 

 a finer tree than any standing at the present day (cf. Elwes and Henry, 1907, p. 343). 



3 Sparganium leaves, cut and allowed to dry, but not to become brittle, make material almost 

 as good for tying as Bast, or Raffia of to-day, and were so used to recent times. They are still 

 employed for rush-mats and baskets. For local industries by cottagers and gipsies, continuing most 

 ancient practice, cf. Woods (1921), Rural Industries round Oxford : for hazel wattle-hurdles, rakes, 

 brooms, split-willow hurdles, and split willow for basket-work (p. 94). Glyceria aquatica of the 

 river, cut and used for thatching hay-ricks instead of straw, has been noted (1922). 



Traces of older Neolithic practices still remain : 'wattle and daub' for huts, of the hazel and 

 willow of the woodland, with abundant Oxford and Kimeridge Clays, is replaced by ' lath and 

 plaster' ; the lath of cheap imported Pinus sylvestris, and the clays and limestones burnt for bricks 

 and mortar. River-gravels beaten into the daub gave a weather-proof face, and gravel with cement is 

 still seen on modern villa-residences. Turves, as originally cut for roofing-purposes (Plot), are now 

 devoted to making lawns; but the burnt tile, or the cut slab of Stonesfield Slate, maintains the 

 original shape. Local terrace-gravels afford an ideal material for garden-paths, as rough blocks of 

 Coral Rag which may be dug out of the ground, as well as quarried, make excellent rockeries for 

 calcicolous plants. Though deficient in 'good building-stone, the district carries a wide range of 

 clays, sands, gravels, and in former times peat. 



