LIFE OF DR. ROLLESTON. xlvii 



nations had given them corn, unknown to our early hunters 

 and fishers. It is pointed out how the honey of the rude 

 ancients was got at first from the wild bees, till the device was 

 hit upon of imitating the hollow trees where they built, by 

 making artificial structures of bark to house them in. These 

 earliest hives keep a record of their former use in the French 

 word ruche, from Latin rusca, ' bark,' though it is now many 

 ages since they were superseded by hives of basket-work. 



One of Rolleston's favourite objects of contemplation on his 

 frequent journeys as he watched the varying landscape was the 

 change brought about by man since the ages before history ; how 

 different the trees are from those the old Silurians looked upon, 

 especially how the hedgerows are now marked by lines of elms 

 which, though rarely seeding in this climate, have propagated 

 themselves by suckers since Roman times. He worked this 

 subject out in one of the Glasgow science lectures and in a 

 paper read before the Geographical Society in 1879 (here re- 

 printed, vol. ii. p. 769). Readers who follow the problem of tracing 

 the periods at which our country was stocked with its domestic 

 animals, or are interested in the serious practical harm which 

 reckless cutting down of forests has done to the climates of such 

 countries as Egypt, Greece, and India, will find it well worth 

 while to peruse the multifarious information in this lecture. 

 And though the addresses of presidents of sections of the British 

 Association are apt to be forgotten when they have' answered 

 their temporary purpose, Rolleston's, of which several are printed 

 in the present volumes, will still yield ideas. If there was one 

 place more than another where he was in his element, it was at 

 the British Association. It was not merely that like plenty of 

 other speakers he had something informing to say on many 

 subjects— he had the power of making his words send out as it 

 were intellectual waves, succeeding one another till he had 

 brought his whole audience into sympathetic vibration. When 

 he presided, his powerful presence made him really master of 

 the situation. A letter to the 'Times,' written by his friend 

 Prebendary Buckle, gives no unfair idea of his excellence in this 



