THE ROMAN MILITARY STATION AT NEWSTEAD. 203 
the result of one such investigation only! :—of a number of logs 
from a pre-historic pile-structure in Wigtownshire which I 
examined in 1903, seven were, I found, birch, five alder, three 
hazel, one poplar (or willow), and one oak. 
Oak recorded from Newstead, from the Lochlee Crannog, 
from the Wigtownshire pre-historic dwelling, and from many 
other Roman stations, appears to have occurred plentifully in 
primeval woods of North Britain, in which were also scattered 
trees of rowan and white beam. 
It is rather remarkable that no specimens of coniferous wood 
have been found in the brushwood deposits either at Newstead 
or at the Lochlee Crannog, and the absence of beech wood from 
material from both stations is worth noting. 
ther plant. remains mentioned in the summary of plant 
remains from Newstead, and recorded also from the Lochlee 
Crannog, are portions of bracken fern, stems of heather, 
rhizomes of ferns, bark of birch, and hazel-nuts. 
3. The number of seeds and fruits obtained from the New- 
stead deposits is not, I think, inconsiderable, especially when 
it is remembered that their occurrence in the material 
. examined was to a certain extent accidental, and that it was 
impossible to select for seeds any special seed bearing deposits. 
Among the samples which contained grain, the associated 
weed-seeds belong to plants characteristic at the present 
time of cultivated fields. The occurrence of seeds of Lychnis 
Githago in considerable quantity among the wheat-chaff 
(Sample C, Table I) is interesting, in that it indicates that 4 
troublesome weed of cornfields in certain districts at the present 
day was also a pest in the corn crops of the Romans. The 
plant is essentially a weed of cultivation, and as such is usually 
considered to be a weed introduced into Britain with the cultiva- 
tion of grain crops. In the east of Scotland, even at the present 
time, it is more a casual in cultivated areas than anything else, 
so that the occurrence of the seeds among the wheat-chaff from 
the Newstead station fixes its introduction as far back at least 
as the Roman occupation of this site. Other weeds of the same 
natural order associated with the cultivation of crops at the 
1 Ludovic Maclellan Mann, Pre-historic Pile-Structures in Pits. Proceedings of 
the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1903. 
