THE ROMAN MILITARY STATION AT NEWSTEAD. 201 
The number of specimens which turned out to be hazel was 
remarkable. The bulk of the twigs and branches among the 
material from the pits were of this tree, although twigs and 
branches of birch also were fairly common. Oak was less fre- 
quently found, and in most instances the specimens of this wood 
were in the form of chips of large timber. This is interesting, 
because while hazel fruits and birch catkins were found, no acorns 
or small twigs of oak were discovered among the material sub- 
mitted. It may be noted that pieces of oak bark were recognised, 
and Mr. Curle, in a letter to me, says that “oak must have been 
fairly plentiful, I think, at Newstead. All along the west side the 
early rampart appeared to lie on a double layer of oak branches.” 
As Table II shows, ash was employed as shafts and handles of 
implements, but there is no evidence that it was procured locally. 
In two cases only was ash wood found not associated with imple- 
ments. A piece of wood from Pit VIIJ! proved to be ash, and 
a portion about two inches long of a branch about an inch in 
diameter, without bark, was found among the earliest material 
received. These may have been pieces of broken or discarded 
implement handles. A few specimens of branches of the rowan 
(Pyrus Aucuparia) and of the white beam (Pyrus Aria) were found, 
and there seems little doubt that these trees have been wild in 
Scotland from very early times. One or two specimens of the 
wood of alder were encountered, and similarly a few of poplar 
(or willow.) 
Thus it will be seen that the trees, recognised by the wood 
anatomy of twigs and branches, with portions of bark, which 
one may regard as growing locally at Newstead at the time of 
the occupation of the Roman Camp, number seven only :—oak, 
birch, hazel, willow or poplar, alder, rowan, white beam. 
2. Leaves and the soft parts of plants were not sufficiently well 
preserved in most cases to enable one to identify them. However, 
a few remains of this nature were in fairly satisfactory condition, 
and among them I was able to identify leaves of hazel, leaves of 
birch, the stem and leaf-base of an umbelliferous plant, leaves of 
various grasses and sedges, leaves and flower parts of the common 
ling, stems and flower parts of nettles, the stems and leaves 
_1See Table II, Spec. No. 9. 
