202 TAGG—VEGETABLE REMAINS FROM THE SITE OF 
of a species of dock, a frond of the common bracken, the 
rhizome and leaf rhachis of a fern, probably the species just 
mentioned, and several mosses and liverworts. The stem and 
leaf-sheath of the umbelliferous plant, I have every reason to 
believe, is that of cow parsnip (Heracleum Sphondylium), but a 
search for remains of fruits of this plant, the discovery of which 
would have done much to confirm my diagnosis, proved un- 
successful, 
The pieces of bark recognised belong to the following 
species :—oak, birch, hazel, rowan. 
My attention has been directed by Professor Bayley Balfour to 
a report on the vegetable remains found at the Lochlee Crannog, 
Tarbolton, Ayrshire, investigated by Mr. Robert Munro. 
Mr. Munro’s account of the excavations of this Crannog is in 
the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol. 
XIII., and the report upon the vegetable remains by Professor 
Bayley Balfour supplies what appears to me to be some 
interesting comparisons between the plant remains of that site 
and those of the Newstead Roman Station. 
The brushwood from below the log-pavement of the Lochlee 
Crannog was, it appears, composed of woods belonging to one 
or other of the following trees :—birch, hazel, alder, willow. The 
twigs and branches of the nature of bushwood found in the 
material from the Newstead site are chiefly hazel and birch, 
while twigs of alder and willow, although not plentiful, were also 
ound. 
Alder and willow are trees preferring damp. situations, 
so that their occurrence, perhaps in some quantity, in the 
vicinity of the Lochlee Crannog at the time of its occupation is 
easily understood. Hazel and birch, with alder and willow 
more plentiful perhaps in moist situations, I am inclined to 
lieve, were somewhat dominant trees in the primeval woods 
of North Britain. 
This opinion is supported not only by the results of the 
examination of the material from Newstead and the records from 
the Lochlee Crannog, but also by the results of similar investi- 
gations which at various times I have made of the plant remains of 
other sites of Roman and pre-Roman occupation. Thus, to quote 
